Around The NBA: 2019-20 RESTART

[kodo]

35 point half for Toronto, that's rough no matter who you're facing.

[Dresden]

35 point half for Toronto, that's rough no matter who you're facing.

BOS is making TOR look terrible. They look slow, old, and over matched. Boston seems one step ahead of them all the time.

I think BOS-MIA will be a great series. Both teams really play good team ball, good defense, and both are well coached. Should be a real dog fight.

[Kurt Heimlich]

Most of us bought into the MPJ is injured so we can't draft him at 7 story (and so did the next 6 teams after us) so I can't get too mad. But chalk up another garpax botch job with the 2017 draft. Nobody is right all the time. But from 2013 - 2019 they were right almost none of the time.

[Chi town]

Jermaine Grant choking at the end. Wrong guys taking all the big shots. Clipps turning up that D

[kodo]

I think DEN played the end correctly. Jerami is a 39% 3P shooter, and he had open looks. DEN is not a great hero ball team, they don't have guys like that except Murray when he's on fire and he was ice cold tonight. If they're going to win this series it will be with team ball.

DEN should feel good that they almost won that game with a real stinker from Murray. They could really use Barton back, he's their 3rd leading scorer and one of their only veterans. Outside of Millsap, that team age has to be around 23.

[dougthonus]

Was looking at wiretap headline about the Thunder trading Chris Paul and thought, man what a haul that would be if the Thunder were able to move him for a 1st rounder. That said, I'm not sure what team would want Chris Paul given his small time horizon, and his massive salary makes it really difficult to pull a trade off, the ones that would probably want him most don't really have the capability to match salaries.

[MrSparkle]

Jermaine Grant choking at the end. Wrong guys taking all the big shots. Clipps turning up that D

Jerami just doesn’t have a good jumpshot. If he did, he’d be a $25m player.

But yeah, ideally you want Murray closing the game. He’s been cold but a bad night usually doesn’t affect closers at the end of a game. I just don’t think Nuggets can win without him scoring atleast 20.

Honestly though, I think DEN played very well for about 40 minutes, including the last 2 minutes or so. The early 4th Q stretch, where they went scoreless and I think LAC went on a 15-0 run... you just can’t afford that against Kawhi and co. Jokic needs to generate something, keep the point rally going.

[MrSparkle]

Was looking at wiretap headline about the Thunder trading Chris Paul and thought, man what a haul that would be if the Thunder were able to move him for a 1st rounder. That said, I'm not sure what team would want Chris Paul given his small time horizon, and his massive salary makes it really difficult to pull a trade off, the ones that would probably want him most don't really have the capability to match salaries.

I was thinking about that. Presti really made off like a bandit. I’ve long said that 30yo stars become this dangerous trade investment, and he in a way pulled off the Ainge heist with the number of picks he got. Of course PG and Westbrook were younger than Pierce and KG (which made that BRK trade truly baffling), but trading away 4+ year unprotected FRPs in this rapidly player-changing climate is a recipe for disaster.

Westbrook: 24/26 (top-4 prot.), 21/25 swaps

George: unprotected LAC 22/24/26, MIA 21/23 (23 is protected), 23/25 swaps

And he got nothing but near-star quality players (Gallo, Shai, Paul).

So I was thinking, he absolutely should continue the talent rally. He can sell CP3 high right now and probably get another integral future piece. I was thinking that Paul/Shai/Schroder for Simmons/Horford would actually work. Let him rehab the knee, have an actual tank season, and you come in with plenty of ammo for a proper Simmons build (3P spacers).

[dougthonus]

So I was thinking, he absolutely should continue the talent rally. He can sell CP3 high right now and probably get another integral future piece. I was thinking that Paul/Shai/Schroder for Simmons/Horford would actually work. Let him rehab the knee, have an actual tank season, and you come in with plenty of ammo for a proper Simmons build (3P spacers).

I question whether he can sell CP3 high only because I tried to find a team that would do it, and I couldn't find one due to the high salary and difficulty in matching 40M in a trade. Most teams don't have enough spare parts to add up to 40M to make a trade work and only a few teams can use Paul enough in the next 2 years (ironically a couple of those are the LA teams which have no picks left).

[Chi town]

Jermaine Grant choking at the end. Wrong guys taking all the big shots. Clipps turning up that D

Jerami just doesn’t have a good jumpshot. If he did, he’d be a $25m player.

But yeah, ideally you want Murray closing the game. He’s been cold but a bad night usually doesn’t affect closers at the end of a game. I just don’t think Nuggets can win without him scoring atleast 20.

Honestly though, I think DEN played very well for about 40 minutes, including the last 2 minutes or so. The early 4th Q stretch, where they went scoreless and I think LAC went on a 15-0 run... you just can’t afford that against Kawhi and co. Jokic needs to generate something, keep the point rally going.

They are missing Barton's scoring big time. Instead they get Jerami Grant. Gary Harris isn't much help offensively. MPJ is just too young and makes too many mistakes.

[wonderboy2]

How do you block people again? The Sato posts are killing me.

But he knows people man. They play for the NBA. Can't just write that off!

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

Nope you definitely can’t.

[wonderboy2]

Can’t believe bulls didn’t go after Malcolm Brogdon or Beverley during the summer. Last summer had to be one of the bulls dumbest off-seasons of all time. You give Sato a 10 million dollar contract when nobody else would offer him that amount. Everybody talking about trading players like Carter, Markannan, Lavine, when Sato bum ass should be the first one to be traded.

[Andi Obst]

Dear NBA, please replace all the airtime Mark Jackson and Reggie Miller get to tell us how much they hate the modern NBA and every completely clueless Chris Webber appearance with more Stan Van Gundy. Thank you.

Such a pleasant surprise not having to mute a national TV game these days.

[Andi Obst]

35 point half for Toronto, that's rough no matter who you're facing.

BOS is making TOR look terrible. They look slow, old, and over matched. Boston seems one step ahead of them all the time.

I think BOS-MIA will be a great series. Both teams really play good team ball, good defense, and both are well coached. Should be a real dog fight.

I mean, last night was brutal, but this series between Boston and Toronto has still been extremely good so far. The Celtics are the better team and should move on, but you just can't completely count out a Nick Nurse team. The small tactical adjustments in this series have simply been amazing to watch on both sides. Nurse and Stevens could coach 5 Felicios each and I would probably watch that.

But yeah, Celtics vs Heat would be another great series for sure. These playoffs have been great in general so far IMO.

[Dan Z]

Can’t believe bulls didn’t go after Malcolm Brogdon or Beverley during the summer. Last summer had to be one of the bulls dumbest off-seasons of all time. You give Sato a 10 million dollar contract when nobody else would offer him that amount. Everybody talking about trading players like Carter, Markannan, Lavine, when Sato bum ass should be the first one to be traded.

The Pacers traded a first round pick and two seconds to sign Brogdon. I don't think the Bulls would be willing to do that. Beverly talked about coming to Chicago, but I doubt he really wanted to leave the Clippers.

[Dresden]

Dear NBA, please replace all the airtime Mark Jackson and Reggie Miller get to tell us how much they hate the modern NBA and every completely clueless Chris Webber appearance with more Stan Van Gundy. Thank you.

Such a pleasant surprise not having to mute a national TV game these days.

I go along with that- at least regarding Mark Jackson and Webber. I don't mind Reggie as much. I could also do without Doris Burke. She just dominates the conversation too much with her long, ass-kissing monologs.

[MrSparkle]

Welp, between Miami's shooting cooling off and Milwaukee playing at 110%, they've atleast made Miami start breaking a sweat.

Bucks were deer-in-headlights for the first 3 games. I bet they wish they came into game 1 with this level of effort. I do think Bledsoe and Lopez make life harder for Giannis (and vice versa). I'd go into next season considering Giannis at C.

[Jcool0]

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[Dresden]

Welp, between Miami's shooting cooling off and Milwaukee playing at 110%, they've atleast made Miami start breaking a sweat.

Bucks were deer-in-headlights for the first 3 games. I bet they wish they came into game 1 with this level of effort. I do think Bledsoe and Lopez make life harder for Giannis (and vice versa). I'd go into next season considering Giannis at C.

Yeah, MIL seemed like they didn't understand what playoff basketball meant until it was too late.

[Dresden]

HOU up on LAL by 3 at the half. Harden is really playing nice ball- not doing too much, not doing a crazy amount of ISO, and they actually playing defense.