NBA Season 2015-2016

That jives with what my eyeballs have been seeing. The only correct conclusion is that Luke Walton is a better coach.

Luke Walton's getting a dump truck full of money parked in front of his house this off season by a team who wants him to coach them.

Timberwolves need to get on that.

Kevin McHale fired. I'm not sure what to make of it. My favorite response on social media so far, though, has been this.

Vine of Harden and McHale

I've never seen that before. James Harden is hilarious.

Vector wrote:

I've never seen that before. James Harden is hilarious.

It's like he can't not "flop" in every situation.

DSGamer wrote:

Kevin McHale fired. I'm not sure what to make of it. My favorite response on social media so far, though, has been this.

Vine of Harden and McHale

Make it to the Western Conference Finals, then get fired after 11 games. I never thought he was much of a coach, but there is something wrong with that...

Must be more going on. I mean 4-7 isn't exactly a great start, but way too early and too small a sample size to really know anything about the kind of season they're headed for.

A bit surprising. McHale's been through incredible highs with largely the same team in the past years. No outsider could reasonably say that this dip can somehow be attributed to the coach. Harden hasn't been playing like himself recently, and without him the rest of the team naturally falls apart. I don't know how firing McHale will solve anything, especially when he's been a strong supporter of the Morey system.

Yeah, must be more going on.

Thirteenth wrote:

A bit surprising. McHale's been through incredible highs with largely the same team in the past years. No outsider could reasonably say that this dip can somehow be attributed to the coach. Harden hasn't been playing like himself recently, and without him the rest of the team naturally falls apart. I don't know how firing McHale will solve anything, especially when he's been a strong supporter of the Morey system.

Yeah, must be more going on.

That or the easiest piece to replace quickly on a team with a championship window is the coach. Either way it doesn't speak well of everyone's MVP favorite from last year (until the media collectively regained its sanity).

I thought the Clippers had it. Can this team make historic start?

Curry is gonna Curry. Even up 23, I kept feeling like the collapse was going to happen. I did think that when they let, GS get to within one at 96-95, only to sprint back out to 107-96 lead that they would hold on. Great finish by the Warriors.

I feel for the Pelicans. I really do. They're supposed to be this young and growing team, with a future HoFer and hot assistant coach from last year's champion. Things have not turned out anywhere close to expectation.

While the Warriors will try for tying history at 15-0 Sunday, the 76ers have already made history. First team ever to start 0-13 in back-to-back seasons. Ouch.

So the Hornets regularly (or rather, not infrequently) score 100+ per game and can hit 3-pointers now. Fun times in Charlotte!

It's the craziest transformation I've seen over the course of one offseason. Identity's totally changed.

By the way, much as happened to the East West gap we saw last year. The West still has more good teams, but the East is contending so far this season. I'm really glad that that's the case, maybe not for my Wizards.

Stele wrote:

While the Warriors will try for tying history at 15-0 Sunday, the 76ers have already made history. First team ever to start 0-13 in back-to-back seasons. Ouch.

Tire fire.

Pistons split their two games this weekend. I didn't get to see either of them, but it seems clear their bench is going to hold them back this year. As soon as the starters leave the floor it gets ugly, fast. They need Brandon Jennings back from his Achilles tear (should be next month) and a prayer that he's a semblance of the player he was before he got hurt. Having Jodie Meeks back from (January?) would help too, but man, just bad.

At the moment, they feel like a 7/8 seed team with some upside, which I'll take after he last few seasons. The Dummond/Jackson combination is hella fun to watch.

So... Paul George is back, eh?

7-8 from 3, 40 points. And CJ Miles chipping in 32 with 8-9 from 3 himself. Pacers franchise record 19 3s, out of 26 attempts. Suck it, Wizards.

Also looks like the Warriors are blowing the Lakers out by 30 for 16-0 start. Think I'm going to skip the 4th quarter and get some sleep.

16 - 0.

Stele wrote:

So... Paul George is back, eh?

7-8 from 3, 40 points. And CJ Miles chipping in 32 with 8-9 from 3 himself. Pacers franchise record 19 3s, out of 26 attempts. Suck it, Wizards. :P

Ugggggh

I'm not surprised Kobe's retiring. In all honesty I think he could've benefited from doing it sooner. Now his legacy will forever be tarnished by the dreadful last couple of seasons, where he looked like an aging star who couldn't let go.

Totally not a Clippers fan, especially on a night like tonight when they're playing my Blazers. I do however really like Ralph Lawler. He's a throwback to old school broadcasting. He's from an era where it's not a dire struggle between us vs them but "hey this is a great thing we're watching, enjoy it with me". He's from the generation of Portland's Bill Schonely who I dearly miss from the radio position. Bill Schonely who gave me childhood mantras of "Bingo Bango Bongo" "through the Cyclops in midcourt" and "Rip City".
We're probably going to be worked by the Clips tonight as we stole one from them last time, but that's ok. I love watching a game with Ralph. He makes it fun.

Caught the last quarter of Pistons/Rockets last night and watching the Rockets turn a 20pt deficit to 4 largely on the back of Hack-a-Dre (who went 4/16 from the line) was mind-numbing. Pistons went on to win, but the hack-a-guy strategy has really started to irk me.

As much as there is logic to saying, "If you don't like it, make your damn free throws," it also makes the games nigh unwatchable for fans. It's horrific basketball to watch, no matter which team you're a fan of. Would love to see the NBA change the rule on off-ball fouls to allow the ball-handler to take the shots.

I enjoy the strategy, and the mockery that should come with being paid millions of dollars and not being able to make FTs.

One of the players at Louisville struggled last year, making only 40% of his FTs. So they started having him practice underhanded, Rick Barry style. He played on the U19 olympic team this summer and shot 60%, and so far is shooting 60% on the season through 5 games for Louisville.

Some of these NBA guys need to swallow their pride and give it a try. There's a reason Rick Barry shot 90% for his career.

There, I agree with you. Whatever a guy has to do to make the shots, he ought to be doing... no matter how ridiculous it looks.

My problem with it is the effect on the pace of the game and the fan experience watching it. Nobody watches basketball to watch a dude away from the play get deliberately fouled over and over again in the 3rd quarter. It's more excruciating to sit through than the last 2-minutes of a contested college basketball game (which practically takes an hour for... Reasons).

It's not as bad if it's your team deploying the strategy, as it's typically a one-game thing, but when it's a guy on your team and you have to see it every other game, it's.... ugh.

I have a lot of pent up angst about this left over from the Ben Wallace years.

I'm with you, ubrakto. I think it's terrible and for some reason we have an exception to the rule in the last 2 minutes of games. I wish the NBA would just bring back the rule where you can't intentionally foul off the ball. That's the dumbest part to me, the fact that you can just hug a guy 90 feet away from the ball.

Jahlil Okafor got into a fight in Boston last week after a night out at the club. Guess he was getting heckled, but he initiated the violence. Should be interesting to see what comes of it.
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