2018 NBA Catch-All - LeBron Fallout Edition

LeapingGnome wrote:

For me, I did not expect the Cavs to drop off so much. It is still early, but not that early.

Isaiah Thomas has yet to play a game for them.

LeapingGnome wrote:

In the West, the Spurs are 6-4 and having a negative point differential. I assume they'll be there in the end but they are looking a bit mediocre so far.

Kawhi hasn't played yet this season. Neither has Parker but at this point I'm not sure if that's a big deal.

Good points. I don’t expect Thomas to be much of an impact this season.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Good points. I don’t expect Thomas to be much of an impact this season.

I don't either. But prior to seeing how bad his injury was I assumed this was going to be a trade where "both sides won" eventually. But without Thomas making much of an impact the Cavs basically lost a top 10 player for almost nothing.

Kristaps and the Knicks have been a pleasant surprise so far. At 30 points a game KP is 13 points above his career average and beginning to look like the leader Melo never was.

I guess it's early (and it's not like I have much basketball knowledge) but I'm not seeing much from the Raptors to tell me they'll be better when the playoffs come around. They are passing the ball around more on offense which is at least fun to watch but their starters haven't really hit their stride in the games I've seen.

The Miles & Kids bench units have been amazing but that's going to be less of a factor come playoff time. It's still fun to sit and watch a game once in a while though, the one against New Orleans in Toronto was great.

OKC's been the one team I've wanted to watch but haven't been able to yet. There was one game I watched a bit of but it turned into a blowout so that was enough of that.

Flipped on the Sixers / Lakers game and Embiid dropped a eurostep. He and Simmons are so fun to watch.

Just saw a clip of Embiid’s move on Twitter. Just ridiculous.

Please share. I tried to find a clip to share and couldn’t find one. The game itself was great. I hope Simmons and Embiid can stay healthy. They’re both so talented and they play well together. Overall the team is talented and they might have actually built something.

https://twitter.com/ringer/status/93...

For those wondering, @JoelEmbiid would fall into the 'Born With Powers' category of our #SuperheroDraft.

Clip at the link.

Donovan Mitchell certainly proving he was ready to leave. Miss him at Louisville, but he's racking up the double-digit scoring games for the Jazz. Saw that he was leading all rookies in scoring for the month of November the other day. Hope he can sustain it.

For the Jazz' sake I hope he starts making shots at a higher percentage. Then again, it took Kemba 4 years to get over 40%.

While NBA 2K is still, by far, the best basketball game on the market, I was playing NBA Love last night, mostly to check out the 4K enhanced stuff (not much), and was using the Sixers.

I don’t care if 2K is more reaslistic, playing with Embiid in Live is like a throw back to when it was fun for sports games to just be ridiculous. Seriously, he is the most fun over-powered player I’ve ever used in a basketball game. He came up in the right time, because these games do such a better job of capturing player emotions and gestures, and Embiid is, well, a treasure.

May be, but I hate flopping.

That didn’t seem like a flop. I mean, he was pushed, and going down like that is actually dangerous. That’s how you break a hand or wrist.

I think he just baited the guy into a T, which is all part of the game.

Jayhawker wrote:

That didn’t seem like a flop. I mean, he was pushed, and going down like that is actually dangerous. That’s how you break a hand or wrist.

I think he just baited the guy into a T, which is all part of the game.

Embiid on the Donovan Mitchell technical:
"I blocked his shot and I said something to him, and then he just got up and kind of fake shoved me and I flopped. Then he got a technical for it."

Then it was an awesome flop.

I’m not sure how feel about Joel Embiid’s trolling. On the one hand trolling is part of why the world is the way it is right now. On the other hand he’s pretty funny.

His latest.

Jalen Rose called Joel Embiid's joke about being at 69 percent conditioning level "unprofessional."

Embiid's response:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPSnuJUWAAIQvU1?format=jpg)

Joel Embiid with Jose Altuve.

IMAGE(http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5a27432ff914c346018b8232-1440/gettyimages-8866082261.jpg)

Ha! Even JJ Watt looks small:

IMAGE(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/RjitlOct86PQEtFfemXHBw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/d0639c30badd3e9fe6bfc1b9eac423a7)

Celtics are a lot more fun to watch than I was expecting in the aftermath of that Hayward injury. I’m kind of surprised Tatum fell to the 3rd pick from what I’ve seen out of Ball and the very little I’ve seen of Fultz. Maybe that will change given time.

Joel Embiid is a damn treasure.
Sure hope okc can string it together.
They seem to be able to compete and win against good teams, but dropping games to the Mavs and Nets is just dumb.

boogle wrote:

Sure hope okc can string it together.
They seem to be able to compete and win against good teams, but dropping games to the Mavs and Nets is just dumb.

With OKC's shallow bench and the Nets having an extra day off before the game I can understand losing in Mexico City's altitude.

James Harden! LOL!!!

That was an interesting way to lose a game.

Video clip of the Harden meltdown. I usually don't watch much regular season NBA but this made me giggle.

https://twitter.com/Marc_DAmico/stat...

He is probably used to refs swallowing their whistles in the last 10 seconds, but he definitely deserved that second one. He deserved it even before that on that rebound where he shoved the guy out of the way but you could tell the refs didn't want to call a second one in a row and instead went up and talked to him and probably told him to cut it out. Then he goes and tries to walk through the defender and left the ref with no choice. Dumb play, he just couldn't understand not getting special treatment.

I love it. He's such a joke.

I canNOT believe we are not talking about the biggest NBA news of 2017, namely LAURA DERN AND BARON DAVIS ARE A THING?!?!?!?!?

Prederick wrote:

I canNOT believe we are not talking about the biggest NBA news of 2017, namely LAURA DERN AND BARON DAVIS ARE A THING?!?!?!?!?

Happy for Baron to be happy.
Same w/ Laura.

Prederick wrote:

I canNOT believe we are not talking about the biggest NBA news of 2017, namely LAURA DERN AND BARON DAVIS ARE A THING?!?!?!?!?

It’s definitely one of the most unexpected pairings I can remember. Let’s focus, though. Referees called Harden with, not 1, but 2 offensive fouls in the same game.