Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- PD28
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
For the raptors, can Norman Powell keep steadily improving and will Ross finally get some consistency (probably not). As for the Knicks I disagree, even if health is not a major concern I don't see them as a top 4 team in the east. Bench is no way near competitive.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Dante Exum - He is such a talented defender. I hope it begins to click for him on offense this season. If he can give George Hill some competition at the point and maybe even take the starting job, then we should be in great shape.
Alec Burks - Dude hasn't been healthy for 2 seasons now. When he's healthy he's a solid slashing guard with a surprisingly good three-point shot and a decent defender on the other end. Only question now is can he stay healthy with his attack-the-basket playstyle. Hopefully the additions of Hill, Johnson, Exum, and Diaw help prevent his reckless style a bit.
Rodney Hood - I truly believe that Hood can make a jump to 20+ PPG this season. He's one of the best isolation players in the league, he's excellent in the pick-and-roll, and he'll benefit from playing with Hill and Exum instead of Neto and Burke. Helps that Joe Johnson, his childhood idle, is now on the squad to mentor him. His game really does remind me of JJ. Just needs to bulk up a little bit and trust in himself. He hit some big time shots last year, I hope he comes into this year with confidence. If he puts up what he did last year, Utah will be a good team. If he gets up to that 20 PPG area, the Jazz will be a top 3 seed in the West.
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Alec Burks - Dude hasn't been healthy for 2 seasons now. When he's healthy he's a solid slashing guard with a surprisingly good three-point shot and a decent defender on the other end. Only question now is can he stay healthy with his attack-the-basket playstyle. Hopefully the additions of Hill, Johnson, Exum, and Diaw help prevent his reckless style a bit.
Rodney Hood - I truly believe that Hood can make a jump to 20+ PPG this season. He's one of the best isolation players in the league, he's excellent in the pick-and-roll, and he'll benefit from playing with Hill and Exum instead of Neto and Burke. Helps that Joe Johnson, his childhood idle, is now on the squad to mentor him. His game really does remind me of JJ. Just needs to bulk up a little bit and trust in himself. He hit some big time shots last year, I hope he comes into this year with confidence. If he puts up what he did last year, Utah will be a good team. If he gets up to that 20 PPG area, the Jazz will be a top 3 seed in the West.
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Harrison Barnes and the general health of the team for the Mavs.
Nowitnessing a legend
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- bmurph128
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
For the Cavs IMO it's the backup PG. Will Kay Felder take it over and play significant minutes, or will it end up being Mo Williams most of the year?
Will Love fit in better? Will Kyrie develop his PG skills?
Coaching continuity?
There's a lot at play for the Cavs here, which is why I think we can be a lot better than we were last year.
Will Love fit in better? Will Kyrie develop his PG skills?
Coaching continuity?
There's a lot at play for the Cavs here, which is why I think we can be a lot better than we were last year.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
XtotheDeezy wrote:I think for the Lakers it's whether or not Julia will take the leap. He averaged 11/10 in a season dominated by Kobe's retirement tour and Scott's incompetence. I think we'll get a lot more insight this season as to whether the Rodman comparisons are legit.
edit: she
also never heard of the Rodman comparisons, although I have heard Al Jefferson and Zbo being thrown out quite a bit. She's nowhere close to Big Al in terms of offensive skillset. a young Zbo is comparable but Julia has a lot more athleticism to her than Zbo ever did.
anyway, my picks are Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid for wildcard players and the Knicks, Wolves, Jazz and Bucks for wildcard teams to take the next step
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
The Celtics. They're coming off a 48 win season and they signed Horford. But, they lost Sully and Turner for nothing and they're still going to struggle to space the floor. This is before you get into does the roster look the same at the deadline as it does today.
cbosh4mvp wrote:
Jarret Allen isn’t winning you anything. Garland won’t show up in the playoffs. Mobley is a glorified dunk man. Mitchell has some experience but is a liability on defense. To me, the Cavs are a treadmill team.
Jarret Allen isn’t winning you anything. Garland won’t show up in the playoffs. Mobley is a glorified dunk man. Mitchell has some experience but is a liability on defense. To me, the Cavs are a treadmill team.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
How does Rondo work in the starting lineup with Wade and Butler?
Alternatively, will Tony Snell ever get it together?
Alternatively, will Tony Snell ever get it together?
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- The Goonibomber
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
SpreeS wrote:Why D.Green?
I feel like he had an argument for being the most important player on GS, and I certainly don't see him making the same kind of impact with KD around. His decreased role this season is going to be one of the reasons why I don't see the Warriors equaling last year's dominance.
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but somebody has to predict something other than perfection out of these guys.
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Boarder Patrol wrote:Agree with the Knicks. A healthy starting five of Rose, Lee, Melo, KP and Noah could be pretty good but after that the bench is very unproven and weak overall.
For the league? I'd say Durant fitting in w/ the Warriors but I don't have any doubt he will. I'll say Houston - I could see an insane offensive season getting them in the mix for homecourt or a lotto pick.
The Knicks won't get homecourt advantage even if they are all healthy for the entire season.
Rose and Noah are not the players they once were. Melo and Porz are very good but they still are not as good as that.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- jazzfan1971
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Biggest question marks for me are, embiid, hezonja, and exum. Philly being the biggest team question mark. For coaches I'm keeping an eye on Tyrone lue. He seems in a risky position to me.
"Thibs called back and wanted more picks," said Jorge Sedano. "And Pat Riley, literally, I was told, called him a mother-bleeper and hung up the phone."
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- zeebneeb
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
You know what? I agree with you on Philly. Who knows what that team does in terms of wins, and who starts, or even if all the players now, are on the roster when the season starts.jazzfan1971 wrote:Biggest question marks for me are, embiid, hezonja, and exum. Philly being the biggest team question mark. For coaches I'm keeping an eye on Tyrone lue. He seems in a risky position to me.
This is the year for Philly to try and do something solid. I mean how much more of this can Sixer fans take at this point?
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
For the Bulls:
At least one of Mirotic or McDermott has to have a breakout season if they're going to be a top team in the East. This team doesn't have a lot of shooting and needs a breakout season from at least one of them and ideally both to stay on the floor for solid minutes. Pretty much all the other rotation players on the team are known commodities or still 1st or 2nd year players.
At least one of Mirotic or McDermott has to have a breakout season if they're going to be a top team in the East. This team doesn't have a lot of shooting and needs a breakout season from at least one of them and ideally both to stay on the floor for solid minutes. Pretty much all the other rotation players on the team are known commodities or still 1st or 2nd year players.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Non homer pick is Porzingis, if he can give NY something like 18/9 with great defense they're going to be a really tough team.
Homer pick is both Giannis and Jabari, I think both are on the verge of exploding and if they do we're going to be dangerous. Very dangerous. Giannis especially, if he takes the next step I think he will, he's going to be a gamechanger.
Homer pick is both Giannis and Jabari, I think both are on the verge of exploding and if they do we're going to be dangerous. Very dangerous. Giannis especially, if he takes the next step I think he will, he's going to be a gamechanger.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Maybe not most important in regards to the season, but I'm most curious to see the thrown-together Knicks and thrown-together Bulls. Very little confidence in a prediction for either team. Could go either way.
And also: do the heat win 20? (Kidding. But only a little)
And also: do the heat win 20? (Kidding. But only a little)
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
I think Buddy Heild. Buddy was the best player in college basketball and probably the most NBA ready. If he hits his ceiling, I think the whole league gets to see just how good Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis really are.
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Att wrote:Boarder Patrol wrote:Agree with the Knicks. A healthy starting five of Rose, Lee, Melo, KP and Noah could be pretty good but after that the bench is very unproven and weak overall.
For the league? I'd say Durant fitting in w/ the Warriors but I don't have any doubt he will. I'll say Houston - I could see an insane offensive season getting them in the mix for homecourt or a lotto pick.
The Knicks won't get homecourt advantage even if they are all healthy for the entire season.
Rose and Noah are not the players they once were. Melo and Porz are very good but they still are not as good as that.
Oh I'm on the same page with the Knicks - guess I don't agree wholly with OP. I think even a healthy Knicks squad is behind Cleveland, Toronto, Boston and Detroit at the very least. Probably a 6-8 seed with good health, 8-12 if poor.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
- Scalabrine
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Att wrote:Boarder Patrol wrote:Agree with the Knicks. A healthy starting five of Rose, Lee, Melo, KP and Noah could be pretty good but after that the bench is very unproven and weak overall.
For the league? I'd say Durant fitting in w/ the Warriors but I don't have any doubt he will. I'll say Houston - I could see an insane offensive season getting them in the mix for homecourt or a lotto pick.
The Knicks won't get homecourt advantage even if they are all healthy for the entire season.
Rose and Noah are not the players they once were. Melo and Porz are very good but they still are not as good as that.
If KP can make the jump to an efficient offensive play and continue his elite defense then I don't think there's a better second option in the East, and he'd be the best player Melo has ever played with. We were the 4th rated defense when he was on the court and the 27th when he was off.
Noah averaged 11/13/5 per 36 last year. He was a productive player he just didn't get the opportunities and then he got hurt. When healthy he is still a top 10-15 center. I think he is going to be huge for the Knicks and KP this season. Rose is definitely the bigger question mark but even if he plays like the average starting point guard he has been, and continues to get into the paint, it will be a massive improvement over Calderon. We were last in the NBA in fast break point and points off penetration, Rose averaged nearly as many points per game in that stat than the entire Knicks team. It was severely needed. If we had a below average starting point guard we would have been a playoff team.
I think our bench should be alright. I'm a little concerned with our backcourt because 1 injury and we become extremely thin but that's why I said it's the biggest wild card...
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
lakerhater wrote:As a GSW fan Kevon Looney is at the top of this list. His health is in question but he's added weight/strength and is up to 245 lbs. If his body can hold up he can be a factor for GSW this season.
He won't define the W's success but he has a lot of skills that could help their strength in numbers concept and he brings things to the table other W's bigs don't (3 Pt shooting and ball handling)
It's unlikely but possible Looney (far) exceeds expectations and provides the W's with yet another weapon.
This comes off as the most snide wild card I've ever read in one of these threads. Like the only question your team has is whether Kevin Looney is going to be healthy.
You are reminding me of Laker fans during the Kobe era. SMH.
Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
I'd say Rose is anti-wild card. Few players have been as consistently bad with a knowable outcome from his large, 4 most recent seasons sample size. Whatever untapped reserve people think remains was wiped out by injury + he's 28 now, which wouldn't be nearly the same problem if he could shoot, pass, defend, or had a usage < 28%.
Plus the Knicks will have dreadful shooting and passing so it's hard to see how Rose provides anything above replacement level. Noah is a talented passer but besides Lee he'll be surrounded by a collection of high usage scorers who don't space the floor and need the rock. Not to mention Noah's presence will slide Porzingas and Anthony down a position and compound the traffic jam.
Plus the Knicks will have dreadful shooting and passing so it's hard to see how Rose provides anything above replacement level. Noah is a talented passer but besides Lee he'll be surrounded by a collection of high usage scorers who don't space the floor and need the rock. Not to mention Noah's presence will slide Porzingas and Anthony down a position and compound the traffic jam.
geometry
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Re: Biggest Wild Cards of the Season
Biggest "Wild Card"?
Injuries
Seriously though, even if I have no rooting interest, I'm looking forward to seeing Embiid's effect on the 76ers if he ends up healthy.
Injuries
Seriously though, even if I have no rooting interest, I'm looking forward to seeing Embiid's effect on the 76ers if he ends up healthy.