The way-too-early "How does your team look compared to last season?"

[Mamba4Goat]

We got rid of Byron Scott so I'm assuming we're getting rings this year.

[Wizenheimer]

Portland more then doubled their payroll cost and didn't add an all-star

at this point it's:

Gerald Henderson, Chris Kaman, Brian Roberts out

Evan Turner, Festus Ezeli, Shabazz Napier in

Mo Harkless remains a wild card as he's still unsigned. If the Blazers keep him then they got better, at least on paper. The other kind of hidden wild card is that last season, Portland lost the 2nd fewest games in the league due to injury. Maybe the Blazers just have a bunch of durable players. But this is Portland, so when it comes to injuries, Murphy's Law could be lurking.

[Laimbeer]

We got rid of Byron Scott so I'm assuming we're getting rings this year.

I see the Lakers as pretty clearly improving. They overpaid for Mozgov and Deng, but they upgraded the pivot while getting a vet who'd a good elixir between Randle and Ingram. Throw in the debut of Walton and them finding their post-Kobe identity, and they're another team I find interesting.

[Birdie]

We da champs.

All kidding aside tho, I "think" we're better because it's just 1 more year of this team's core being together and having all the ups/downs of the past 2 years "should" galvanize this team and now that they've tasted the sweet nectar of the chip, I would hope, it would/could finally unlock the true potential of this team to blitzkreig the league and not sleepwalk as they've done at times these past 2 years at certain points.

For the 1st time in 2 years, I think this team has a clearer understanding of guys' roles, how we want/should play, game management and what's expected of everyone as an organization. I think there's a plan in place, they got the blueprint from all the damn tinkering that had to be done these past 2 years and this upcoming season "should" bear some fruit from those past experiences.

I expect Kyrie to come off the Olympics hungrier than ever to live up to LBJ's claim he could be an MVP candidate and maybe this will be a wakeup call for KLove, we're a much nastier team when he's engaged. And my hope is, that LBJ is put on a minutes plan where we can get him down to 31-33min on the season.

Lookin back at 2014-2015, Kerr has Steph and Klay at 31/33..that's just crazy. No reason CLE can do the same with LBJ/Kyrie to some degree to keep them fresh for a playoff run. I think this playoff run saw those benefits as LBJ avg his lowest mpg this past season.

I'm really liking what Felder is showing in SL, so, that's promising but he def. needs some coaching up/seasoning but it might be a treat to watch slowass centers even attempt to stay in front of him in PnR, he's gonna make them look like fools he's so damn fast.

And I like the addition of MDJ. Now, if we can get Larry Sanders for free and he's not crazy and in shape (a BIG IF)...no one f'n with us, lol. But I think he's trollin, so, I'm not holdin my breath on that one.

[nomansland]

Pretty much the same.

Gallo and Chandler will be back, for a while.
Augustin left.
Murray, Hernangomez, and Beasley got drafted.
Guys like Toupane and Sampson probably won't be back.

Mostly changes at the end of the bench and hopes that Mudiay, Harris, Jokic and Nurkic get better. Mudiay and Harris are playing on the US Select team so that should help. Jokic already killing it in the Olympic qualifiers so that's good. Playing in the Olympics will be great for his development. Nurkic lost a bunch of weight and is in the gym so that's good.

[Birdie]

Pretty much the same.

Gallo and Chandler will be back, for a while.
Augustin left.
Murray, Hernangomez, and Beasley got drafted.
Guys like Toupane and Sampson probably won't be back.

Mostly changes at the end of the bench and hopes that Mudiay, Harris, Jokic and Nurkic get better. Mudiay and Harris are playing on the US Select team so that should help. Jokic already killing it in the Olympic qualifiers so that's good. Playing in the Olympics will be great for his development. Nurkic lost a bunch of weight and is in the gym so that's good.

You guys could be sooooo sneaky good. Murray lookin REAL gooooooooodddd. With Mudiay, Harris, Murray, Jokic, Nurkic, I mean, it's not MIN type level hype of youngsters, but eye test, you guys got something brewin imo.

I've always liked Chandler's game but with his return and if Danillo can stay healthy and Manimal bounces back WITH Will Barton/Arthur returning, got a solid team. Reminds me a little of BOS' rise 2 years ago.

I guess anything is better than having to talk about the days past of Ty Lawson's next DUI at this point, lol.

[Laimbeer]

We da champs.

All kidding aside tho, I "think" we're better because it's just 1 more year of this team's core being together and having all the ups/downs of the past 2 years "should" galvanize this team and now that they've tasted the sweet nectar of the chip, I would hope, it would/could finally unlock the true potential of this team to blitzkreig the league and not sleepwalk as they've done at times these past 2 years at certain points.

For the 1st time in 2 years, I think this team has a clearer understanding of guys' roles, how we want/should play, game management and what's expected of everyone as an organization. I think there's a plan in place, they got the blueprint from all the damn tinkering that had to be done these past 2 years and this upcoming season "should" bear some fruit from those past experiences.

I expect Kyrie to come off the Olympics hungrier than ever to live up to LBJ's claim he could be an MVP candidate and maybe this will be a wakeup call for KLove, we're a much nastier team when he's engaged. And my hope is, that LBJ is put on a minutes plan where we can get him down to 31-33min on the season.

Lookin back at 2014-2015, Kerr has Steph and Klay at 31/33..that's just crazy. No reason CLE can do the same with LBJ/Kyrie to some degree to keep them fresh for a playoff run. I think this playoff run saw those benefits as LBJ avg his lowest mpg this past season.

I'm really liking what Felder is showing in SL, so, that's promising but he def. needs some coaching up/seasoning but it might be a treat to watch slowass centers even attempt to stay in front of him in PnR, he's gonna make them look like fools he's so damn fast.

And I like the addition of MDJ. Now, if we can get Larry Sanders for free and he's not crazy and in shape (a BIG IF)...no one f'n with us, lol. But I think he's trollin, so, I'm not holdin my breath on that one.

The loss of Delly has to hurt a little. At least I'm telling myself that.

[Birdie]

Spoiler:

We da champs.

All kidding aside tho, I "think" we're better because it's just 1 more year of this team's core being together and having all the ups/downs of the past 2 years "should" galvanize this team and now that they've tasted the sweet nectar of the chip, I would hope, it would/could finally unlock the true potential of this team to blitzkreig the league and not sleepwalk as they've done at times these past 2 years at certain points.

For the 1st time in 2 years, I think this team has a clearer understanding of guys' roles, how we want/should play, game management and what's expected of everyone as an organization. I think there's a plan in place, they got the blueprint from all the damn tinkering that had to be done these past 2 years and this upcoming season "should" bear some fruit from those past experiences.

I expect Kyrie to come off the Olympics hungrier than ever to live up to LBJ's claim he could be an MVP candidate and maybe this will be a wakeup call for KLove, we're a much nastier team when he's engaged. And my hope is, that LBJ is put on a minutes plan where we can get him down to 31-33min on the season.

Lookin back at 2014-2015, Kerr has Steph and Klay at 31/33..that's just crazy. No reason CLE can do the same with LBJ/Kyrie to some degree to keep them fresh for a playoff run. I think this playoff run saw those benefits as LBJ avg his lowest mpg this past season.

I'm really liking what Felder is showing in SL, so, that's promising but he def. needs some coaching up/seasoning but it might be a treat to watch slowass centers even attempt to stay in front of him in PnR, he's gonna make them look like fools he's so damn fast.

And I like the addition of MDJ. Now, if we can get Larry Sanders for free and he's not crazy and in shape (a BIG IF)...no one f'n with us, lol. But I think he's trollin, so, I'm not holdin my breath on that one.

The loss of Delly has to hurt a little. At least I'm telling myself that.

With each passing day and the more I see Kay dribbling right pass dudes and because he's so small and quick, I think he can recreate and maybe exceed the offensive value of Delly. Maybe not in 3pt proficiency but Kay's ball handling and play making compared to Delly's (though he DRASTICALLY improved it last year) is night and day. It's Kay's ability to body guys like Delly that he'll always lack but in spire of Kay's size, he has quicker footspeed to stay in front of guys when they turn the corner as opposed to Delly, who isn't AS athletic and can only use his turn sideways, hands up, I'm not fouling defense as the offensive player drives in for a layup.

And it appears he's got the court vision to be pass first. It just seems Cavs SL plan is to have Jordan or Kay carry whereas there roles will most definitely flip with the big boy squad where you only shoot if you're told to do so.

We'll see, the most concerning thing about Kay is bigger guys just destroying him in the post, which an elite team is gonna demolish him even with good team defense but against crappier teams, I think he can hold his own for short spurts. He's gambling a lot in what I've seen of him thus far and sometimes correctly but other times, he looks completely lost, which isn't the end of the world at this point.

Ty said they might be lookin at DeAndre Liggins but he doesn't do anything for me. It's a shame Sir'Dom most likely will be let go because we just don't have a spot for him but I think he could develop into a serviceable 3-D type guy. We'll see...

[gom]

Miami worse?



How? We only lost our franchise icon. If we had stretched McRoberts, we could have paid what Chicago offered. Relationships are important. Lesson learned?

[sportscrazy]

The Knicks had this man in charge of running their "triangle" offense (wink wink)...



...so...yeah...things are looking much better. Can't really be much worse if you actually had suffered through a season watching Calderon look like absolute poop. After a season of watching him play, I now know understand Raptor fans who said that he only makes safe passes (to get his assist numbers up) and really doesn't do much to make a teams' offense run better. It was basically Calderon, dribbling the ball up slow and methodically looking for Carmelo Anthony at the first chance he gets. Even a half season of Rose will look great compared to full season of this bad boy.

50+ Games of Rose Staying Healthy and Playing at 60% of his old self during those 50 games with Brandon Jennings filling in for the other 30 games or so that I'm expecting Rose to miss is WAY better than Calderon. Courtney Lee is a wash with Afflalo IMO, but possibly a better locker room guy. It really comes down to Noah's health for the Knicks. If Noah can stay healthy, he can do all of the things Lopez did well, but is a much better passer.

[Birdie]

Miami worse?

Spoiler:

How? We only lost our franchise icon. If we had stretched McRoberts, we could have paid what Chicago offered. Relationships are important. Lesson learned?

Noooooooo, what happened to Abella? lmao. That was her, right?

In the grand scheme of things, I think you guys will be just fine longterm. In my opinion, I don't forsee MIA EVER tanking to the effect of PHI levels unless Whiteside/Winslow die but as long as those 2 are the foundation of a quick reload in Years 2-4, instead of just being like the ATL Hawks where just making the playoffs for 19 thousand straight years but no sniff of NBA Finals, the franchise has too much history not to return to that type of glory of just becoming a championship contender.

[gom]

Miami worse?

Spoiler:

How? We only lost our franchise icon. If we had stretched McRoberts, we could have paid what Chicago offered. Relationships are important. Lesson learned?

Noooooooo, what happened to Abella? lmao. That was her, right?

In the grand scheme of things, I think you guys will be just fine longterm. In my opinion, I don't forsee MIA EVER tanking to the effect of PHI levels unless Whiteside/Winslow die but as long as those 2 are the foundation of a quick reload in Years 2-4, instead of just being like the ATL Hawks where just making the playoffs for 19 thousand straight years but no sniff of NBA Finals, the franchise has too much history not to return to that type of glory of just becoming a championship contender.

Man, I wish I had a smidgen of your optimism. Pride comes before the fall. Man we were proud... and it's a long ways down.

[Birdie]

Man, I wish I had a smidgen of your optimism. Pride comes before the fall. Man we were proud... and it's a long ways down.

LOL. I feel ya and understand where you're coming from but the matter of fact, no taxes AND SOUTH BEACH, MIA will be a destination whether it's the most dysfunctional run franchise ever at the very worst. As we know, this guarantees jack but if it's between LA/NYC or MIA, I'm for MIA to chill and ball out with my millions, imo. lol.

If KD doesn't go to Dubs, you guys as a contingent would probably get the pure brunt of off-season hate, "i told ya so", we hate Heat fans, blah blah blah but I think the fact 1) some of us feel sorry Bosh's health which has basically derailed you guys 2) while some of us thought DWade being let go was bad business, the could be justified that there was potential for Kobe/LAL futility going forward and ya'll possibly dodged that bullet and rational minded of us considered that and 3) It's easy to dance on the graves of those that are down but like '09 to '10, Riley has shown to know the blueprint to reload.

Might be more of a challenge now than it ever was going back to Zo years but if anybody can do it, I think he can unless he retires and says f it, I'm out biotches, good luck. Which a little piece of me thinks might just happen as crawls into his hole and disappears. But I think now that LBJ put him on blast and to an effect, DWade, I think his pride will drive him now to put the franchise back on the championship contender status at every cost (except over the luxury sorry, that one was too easy...haha)

Who knows? Maybe Wayne Ellington and Derrick Williams turn into max players this year and ball out for ya'll?

[gom]

Man, I wish I had a smidgen of your optimism. Pride comes before the fall. Man we were proud... and it's a long ways down.

LOL. I feel ya and understand where you're coming from but the matter of fact, no taxes AND SOUTH BEACH, MIA will be a destination whether it's the most dysfunctional run franchise ever at the very worst. As we know, this guarantees jack but if it's between LA/NYC or MIA, I'm for MIA to chill and ball out with my millions, imo. lol.

If KD doesn't go to Dubs, you guys as a contingent would probably get the pure brunt of off-season hate, "i told ya so", we hate Heat fans, blah blah blah but I think the fact 1) some of us feel sorry Bosh's health which has basically derailed you guys 2) while some of us thought DWade being let go was bad business, the could be justified that there was potential for Kobe/LAL futility going forward and ya'll possibly dodged that bullet and rational minded of us considered that and 3) It's easy to dance on the graves of those that are down but like '09 to '10, Riley has shown to know the blueprint to reload.

Might be more of a challenge now than it ever was going back to Zo years but if anybody can do it, I think he can unless he retires and says f it, I'm out biotches, good luck. Which a little piece of me thinks might just happen as crawls into his hole and disappears. But I think now that LBJ put him on blast and to an effect, DWade, I think his pride will drive him now to put the franchise back on the championship contender status at every cost (except over the luxury sorry, that one was too easy...haha)

Who knows? Maybe Wayne Ellington and Derrick Williams turn into max players this year and ball out for ya'll?

A lot has changed in the NBA in a few years. For a long time I thought Lebron had made a mistake. It sure doesn't look that way now.

What's being lost in the "rational minded" is that Wade is absolutely capable of putting together two more strong years. Now he also has an incentive. I believe Chicago is being criminally underrated. Wade is a winner. Now Miami doesn't have one really. We didn't even keep Deng. Where is the grit? I mean, Dragic is talented. Whiteside is a powerful force that changes games, but we are missing the one thing that makes a talented team into a great team. A team like Golden State has Green, Curry, Thompson, and even Iguodala who possess the necessary quality we lack now: the moxie, the mettle, and the fierce will of a champion. The only guy on our team like that is Haslem and he'll probably have to be carried on and off the court.

I'm not very happy.

Not resigning Wade was a betrayal that will be hard to forgive. Eventually I know I'll come around, but right now I'm very pissed. And hiring players like Derrick Williams and Wayne Ellington and Luke Babbitt, this attempt at normalcy... frankly, it's an insult to the fans' intelligence.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/17019392/miami-heat-captain-udonis-haslem-wishes-convnced-dwyane-wade-stay

If you listen to Wade in the interview, just the manner he comports himself, the only conclusion is that Miami pulled the plug on him. Two years of Kobeism isn't that much of a sacrifice for a guy that brought us our only 3 rings.

P.S. Yes, that was Abella. She lives in Miami.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AbellaXXX/status/752183006165598210[/tweet]

[JasonStern]

How does your team look compared to last season?

for the most part? significantly overpaid.

[chrbal]

Pistons- We actually have something of a bench this year and our backup PG shouldn't be among the coaching staff. We don't have to worry about " Drummond will bolt because Detroit can't keep anybody worthwhile". Well at least for 4 more years.

[yosemiteben]

how i see the new players vs old players.

Lin vs Sessions- i think this is a downgrade
Lee vs Marco- large downgrade
Al vs Roy- both terrible, but i think Al is better.
Rob vs Daniels- neither would play much, but Daniels is better.

I don't understand these pairings, Lee started and should be compared to MKG, no?

Lin - Sessions
Lee - MKG
Daniels - Marco
Gutierrez - BRob
Al - Roy

[PDX MM]

Well I am a far more pessimistic fan than most so take what I say with that in mind. I still feel we overachieved last year and it was only thanks to some other teams having down years that we were able to make the playoffs with semi-high seed. We only made the second round thanks to key injuries to 2 top Clippers players.

This summer has been a complete letdown. Ezeli certainly will be the wild card but some serious questions about those knees does not make me a believer. Other than him the only change is going from Henderson to Turner and that is not much of a needle mover. I won't mind being wrong here but I don't think we make the playoffs next year or best case we finish the 8th seed GS warmup team.

[Boarder Patrol]

Rose > Calderon (even if its just half the year)
Lee > Afflalo
Melo = Melo (maybe slightly better than last year with a healthy offseason)
KP next season > KP last season
Noah < RoLo (assuming health is meh, which it will be)

this year's bench < last year's bench
Hornacek > Fisher/Rambis

Assuming 55-65 healthy games from Noah and Rose, I think we're substantially better and in the 40-44 win range. Anything can happen though.

[YourBuddy]

1. Thibs is a pretty big upgrade from Smitch. Brings defense to a core of players who when they were on the court together were one of the best offensive lineups in the league.

2. Wolves also lost Andre Miller and no longer have Zach LaVine playing point guard. Added Kris Dunn. Should be another big upgrade. Whenever Ricky Rubio would sit, the Wolves would collapse. Now with Dunn they have another dynamic player off the bench.

3. Replacing minutes of Adriean Payne and Greg Smith with Cole Aldrich. Should really help the Wolves inside with rebounding.

4. Lost Tayshaun Prince and replaced him with Brandon Rush. Prince was pretty terrible last year. Brandon Rush's ability to stretch the floor will be a welcome addition.