NBA Season 2016-2017

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The Chicago Bulls traded a useful swingman for a backup PG who can't shoot to backup their other PG who can't shoot. With that I think it's time to talk about the new NBA season. Other fun stories.

Not only did Chicago trade away a useful wing, but Jason Kidd's team traded away the closest thing to the next Jason Kidd.

The shackles are coming off James Harden as he's finally going to play in a system where the coach gives him the green light.

And, most importantly of all.

Yeah saw some preseason scores last week. I guess it's time.

Given how the final months went last year, I was getting pretty excited for the Pistons this season, right up to the point Reggie Jackson went down for 6-8 weeks. Having Ish Smith at PG ought to keep the starting unit afloat during that time, but I'm not holding my breath for whomever manages the point as the backup during that time. Still, if the Pistons manage to stay at .500 through December that would bode well for them ending up a a top 4 Eastern Conference team by year's end. (Says the eternal optimist.)

I'm really pulling for the Pistons. I like Van Gundy and I like their roster.

I'm not too bullish on my own team, which is why I'm going to be in full Westbrook fan homer mode to start the season. I don't think the Blazers did much to improve and they spent a lot of money locking down an "ok" roster. It's the ultimate curse of a small market team playing in a fairly unexciting town for 20-something millionaires. Unless something changes I think Portland will have a really hard time attracting the free agents they did in the 90s. The best they can hope for are locking down young players they drafted on longer contracts.

DSGamer wrote:

I'm really pulling for the Pistons. I like Van Gundy and I like their roster.

I'm not too bullish on my own team, which is why I'm going to be in full Westbrook fan homer mode to start the season. I don't think the Blazers did much to improve and they spent a lot of money locking down an "ok" roster. It's the ultimate curse of a small market team playing in a fairly unexciting town for 20-something millionaires. Unless something changes I think Portland will have a really hard time attracting the free agents they did in the 90s. The best they can hope for are locking down young players they drafted on longer contracts.

Yeah, there is a lot of reason to think the Pistons core guys are still getting to their prime, and the team did a lot (prior to the Jackson injury) to shore up the bench, which was really the weak link last year. Last year was the first year in a long time where it was fun to watch that team play. I'm hoping for more of that this year.

I don't know Portland's roster at all. Is the consensus that their young guys are already at their ceiling or is there some growth potential there?

The problem is that even though Lillard won Rookie of the Year and McCollum won most improved player in his second year, they're both 4 year college grads. So they entered the NBA with less of their prime left. The rest of the team is really talented, but definitely overpaid for who they are.

They'll be fun to watch, but their window is small and the ceiling is low. That's just my take, though.

I agree DS. Portland has a bunch of good to pretty good players so they don't want to let them go, but their cap is full with them so they do not have much room to add new impact people. I think most of the players have already reached most of their potential, they might get a little better but there is not a breakout star waiting as far as I know. They are stuck in that middle where they are good enough to get to the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs, but not good enough to challenge for a championship and they'll probably stay that way for 2-3 years barring some big roster change.

Go Hornets!

MKG is back, which is probably the best thing, and all of the starters are back. But the Hornets had a lot of second unit churn (Big Al, Jeremy Lin and Courtney Lee are gone; Roy Hibbert and Marco Belinelli are new; Ramon Sessions is back after a few years away).

Overall ... meh, about the same as last year. .500-ish and somewhere between 3 and 6 seed.

I think they'll be reasonably entertaining. The Hornets/Bobcats went through some lean years when they were absolutely no fun to watch, but I think they'll be OK on the eyes this year.

500ish? Cmon! Give some credit where it's due. 12 games over!

Hoping that fully healthy Paul George can make a run.

NBA 2k cover, so what can go wrong?

Am I the only one who's taking the Warriors situation as an opportunity to ignore them and focus on the rest of the NBA? Worst case scenario the Warriors roll over the entire NBA and the season is boring and uncompetitive. Best case scenario the Warriors aren't inevitable and another team surprises us. Go Pistons, Hornets, Blazers, Rockets, Thunder and anyone else who isn't a super team.

The NBA is in a really good place right now. The Warriors and Cavs had an epic Finals, and are the favorites again, but there are lots of intriguing teams below them. Young stars are everywhere (although Ben Simmons'a injury hurts), which makes the future bright, as well.

I'm interested to see the Pacers, Wizards, and Celtics in the East. T-Wolves, Pelicans, and OKC Westbrooks are super interesting, too.

I shouldn't have said boring. I didn't mean the season would be boring. Just that if the Warriors really click it might mean the playoffs are boring. I think there are a ton of intriguing young teams including the ones you mentioned.

My joking about Harden being a ball hog aside I'm genuinely looking forward to watching the marriage between Harden's game and D'Antoni's offense.

The Warriors are one injury away from being worse than last year, and two of their big four (Curry and Durant) have scary injuries in their past.

Granted, worse than last year is still damn good,

Assuming a Finals rematch, the biggest question for me is whether Durant can overtake LeBron as the best player on the floor.

Blind_Evil wrote:

500ish? Cmon! Give some credit where it's due. 12 games over!

Ha! I'm also a Panthers fan. Like the Panthers, the Hornets haven't had back-to-back winning seasons since the first time they were the Hornets. (The Panthers have never had back-to-back winning seasons.) Plus I got burned this fall by thinking that the Panthers were absolutely positively going to win 10, 12 or most certainly 14 games this season. THANKS, CHARLOTTE SPORTS TEAMS.

I think the Hornets could be as good or better than 15-16, but I don't pay enough attention to the rest of the league to know how much the East improved or even if it did.

Also, too: Roy Hibbert might end up starting the season as the starting center. Call me a skeptic until he shows me something.

Enix wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

500ish? Cmon! Give some credit where it's due. 12 games over!

Ha! I'm also a Panthers fan. Like the Panthers, the Hornets haven't had back-to-back winning seasons since the first time they were the Hornets. (The Panthers have never had back-to-back winning seasons.) Plus I got burned this fall by thinking that the Panthers were absolutely positively going to win 10, 12 or most certainly 14 games this season. THANKS, CHARLOTTE SPORTS TEAMS.

I think the Hornets could be as good or better than 15-16, but I don't pay enough attention to the rest of the league to know how much the East improved or even if it did.

Also, too: Roy Hibbert might end up starting the season as the starting center. Call me a skeptic until he shows me something.

I'm a little more optimistic. I think they might regress a bit but I don't think the rest of the East got much better on the whole. I think people are unduly excited about the Pistons. The Heat are probably gonna take a step back without Bosh and Wade. The Hawks replacing Horford with Dwight seems like flirting with disaster. The Knicks are probably going to be a tire fire, and I don't think Milwaukee shoots well enough to finish over 500.

Overall I see two indisputably improved teams: Boston and Indiana. Cleveland, Boston and Toronto are the top 3. I suspect Indiana might leap frog the Hornets for 4. Charlotte 5, Pistons 6, Hawks 7, Knicks or Bulls 8.

Charlotte's chances depend on if Zeller (he's starting if healthy) improves, if MKG stays healthy, and if they can replicate Lin's bench scoring.

I largely agree, Blind, except I think the Hawks fall out of the playoffs. Howard was an ok fit with Houston, but it feels like he'll be a disaster with the Hawks.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Charlotte's chances depend on if Zeller (he's starting if healthy) improves, if MKG stays healthy, and if they can replicate Lin's bench scoring.

That's a lot of ifs. A lot of guys wear down over 82 games.

Interestingly, the Hornets are kind of a veteran team now. Belinelli, Sessions and Marvin Williams are 30, and Hibbert's 29.

The 76ers strategy of drafting oft-injured players to stash them off the books for a year and tank longer seems to be coming back to bite them again.

Although you're not wrong, I see this mistake made a lot. They didn't draft Noel. He was traded, along with the Pelicans 2014 first round pick, to the 76ers for Jrue Holiday and Pierre Jackson.

It was one of the first moves by Hinkie and, at the time, was considered great. The problem was everything that came after it.

It was a draft day trade, wasn't it? This is usually the same thing in the NBA as being your draft pick. Either way it amounted to drafting yet another player they didn't have to put on the books / would risk making the team good. That clever trick (repeated with Embiid) continues to bite them.

Yeah, draft day trade. They picked him knowing he had missed a while with that torn acl or whatever it was.

Can't say I agree with the sentiment, though. You can look at the Sixers in a vacuum like that and it seems like a shaky approach. However, the Cavs just won their first ever title and wouldn't have done so if not for drafting a one and done guy that only played 12 games in college named Kyrie Irving. If the Warriors had made a point to cut bait in injury prone guys, they probably wouldn't have extended Steph Curry (4 year extension the off-season after he only played 26 games due to 3 injuries). Also see Bogut's history.

And on the other hand, Greg Oden. So who knows.

DSGamer wrote:

It was a draft day trade, wasn't it? This is usually the same thing in the NBA as being your draft pick. Either way it amounted to drafting yet another player they didn't have to put on the books / would risk making the team good. That clever trick (repeated with Embiid) continues to bite them.

It was a draft day trade but was not like other trades of labeled as such. Noel was, before his injury, considered to be the 1st overall pick and the 76ers targeted him. The Pelicans liked Holiday and were willing to give up a pretty big package to get him.

I don't mind the 76ers drafting strategy. It was their inability to trade for anyone of value, get value out of their surplus picks, and complete avoidance of any smart free agent signings. Hinkie was very good at acquiring picks and inserting the 76ers into trades but completely failed at every other aspect of his job*.

*except he hired a fantastic coach

Blind_Evil wrote:

And on the other hand, Greg Oden. So who knows.

Well, that's just it. Big men with foot and knee problems are notoriously risky compared to guards. Irving and Curry aren't carrying the same weight. There are always exceptions (Brandon Roy), but the Sixers basically drafted 3 big men with injury histories. I think it's safe to say it's backfired.

That sucks for Noel.

The real problem with the Sixers has been how they drafted. If you're swinging for the fences, why not take Porzingis and Greek Freak instead of Okafor and MCW?

Those rings are insane. Who is going to wear them?

I think they look pretty cool, nicer face design that stands out vs a lot of other championship rings that I've seen. The gem colors on the bottom of the band that shows who won which games is pretty cool too.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cvp1WSbWEAQ5QsT.jpg)

LeapingGnome wrote:

The gem colors on the bottom of the band that shows who won which games is pretty cool too.

That's *really* cool. Especially considering the context of how they won the title.

I'm going to drown in all the hot takes today, I can just feel it. Go easy on me plz.

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