Around The League 2022-2023 season

[jonbob17]

How would you create Eastern conference tiers?

Contenders
Celtics. (probably really a tier to themself if healthy, but now they have (Porzingis, Brogdon, Horford, and Rob Williams) who could miss significant time at any point
Bucks - Doesn't seem like they got any better, but kept the band together. We'll see if Middleton bounces back.
76ers. Could be in any of these tiers in a hurry. Harden and now Embiid watch with Morey is fascinating.
Cavs- should see some internal growth

playoff/play in contention
Knicks - Not sure they have enough fire power to get to the above tier
Magic - fully expect to finish above .500 even with a very deep East
Pacers - can they stay healthy, and how does Toppin/Walker shakeout, thats a tough looking starting 5 soon. Maybe need a SF.
Hawks - tough team build.
Heat (depends on Lillard or another deal)

Outside looking in, but could be higher
Nets - Is Mikal Bridges really a 26ppg on 61% TS...i am skeptical, but if he is they may move to the top of the previous tier, i think there is a real chance they tear it down, but not owning their own picks may discourage
Raptors - i think they are kind of stuck
Hornets - depends on Lamelo and Bridges this year could be close 40 wins if everything breaks right
Pistons - lots of young talent, just not sure if everything fits right...yet....Like they have 4 centers, Bagley kind of a tweener. I would just stick with Duren and Stewart.

Rebuild
Bulls - should be in rebuild....assuming injuries and age will catch up with them eventually
Wizards - Should have a pretty easy time of winning the tank race, at least in the East.

[tiderulz]

How would you create Eastern conference tiers?

Contenders
Celtics
Heat
Bucks
76ers

Up and comers
Cavs
Pacers
Magic
Hornets
Hawks

Treadmill
Bulls
Knicks
Raptors

Rebuild
Nets
Pistons
Wizards

The Magic, Pacers, and Hornets being in the same tier as the Cavs feels... off.

I also think the Knicks will win 45-50 games again.

Lots of parity in the east this year.

I was going for a unique angle, with the contenders being the current big 4 and the up and comers being the challengers. Cavs Magic, Hornets, Pacers, and Hawks are all on different timelines but they have one thing in common, they have a franchise player or two identified already.

personally, i would have it, Contenders, Playoffs, Up and comers, rebuild. thats just me.

[cedric76]

Evan will have a great Summer competition and get traded away from the Knicks

[eyriq]

How would you create Eastern conference tiers?

Contenders
Celtics. (probably really a tier to themself if healthy, but now they have (Porzingis, Brogdon, Horford, and Rob Williams) who could miss significant time at any point
Bucks - Doesn't seem like they got any better, but kept the band together. We'll see if Middleton bounces back.
76ers. Could be in any of these tiers in a hurry. Harden and now Embiid watch with Morey is fascinating.
Cavs- should see some internal growth

playoff/play in contention
Knicks - Not sure they have enough fire power to get to the above tier
Magic - fully expect to finish above .500 even with a very deep East
Pacers - can they stay healthy, and how does Toppin/Walker shakeout, thats a tough looking starting 5 soon. Maybe need a SF.
Hawks - tough team build.
Heat (depends on Lillard or another deal)

Outside looking in, but could be higher
Nets - Is Mikal Bridges really a 26ppg on 61% TS...i am skeptical, but if he is they may move to the top of the previous tier, i think there is a real chance they tear it down, but not owning their own picks may discourage
Raptors - i think they are kind of stuck
Hornets - depends on Lamelo and Bridges this year could be close 40 wins if everything breaks right
Pistons - lots of young talent, just not sure if everything fits right...yet....Like they have 4 centers, Bagley kind of a tweener. I would just stick with Duren and Stewart.

Rebuild
Bulls - should be in rebuild....assuming injuries and age will catch up with them eventually
Wizards - Should have a pretty easy time of winning the tank race, at least in the East.

Love it, don't disagree at all.

[eyriq]

The Magic, Pacers, and Hornets being in the same tier as the Cavs feels... off.

I also think the Knicks will win 45-50 games again.

Lots of parity in the east this year.

I was going for a unique angle, with the contenders being the current big 4 and the up and comers being the challengers. Cavs Magic, Hornets, Pacers, and Hawks are all on different timelines but they have one thing in common, they have a franchise player or two identified already.

personally, i would have it, Contenders, Playoffs, Up and comers, rebuild. thats just me.

I was just trying a different, non power-ranking approach.

[pepe1991]

Fournier was statistically a top 10 worst defender in the last 1-2 years he played here already & since tanked (in combination with Kemba) 2 Top 3 defenses in in back to back years in New York & Boston, before they traded or benched him. He is unplayable for more than 10-20 min at this stage of his career.

Fournier was also a terrible player on offense last year. His shooting was atrocious. Frankly: it is my view that the 19M he gets this year will be the last money he ever makes as a player in the NBA.

Vast majority of nba shooters, even starters, play little to no defense.

From Maxey, Hield, Beal, latest version of Klay Thompson, Poole, Booker etc non of them makes their money on defense, matter of fact, they all suck.


Thib is... Thib. Guy is insufferable. Easly the most overrated nba coach ever.

You can make list of illogical things Thib made every year that destroyed or at least hindered his team in massive fashions.

I can just name few off top of my head:
- key reason for Derrick Rose first injury - coach that holds him in game while team is up by 30 in last quater
- key reason why Loul Deng was broken before entering prime years - coach who played him 40 mpg
- enterducing 38 years old players in rotation for non basketball reasons ( multiple occasations, Nazrd Mohamed at age of 38 averaged 1,8 mpg but played 80 games. Kurt Thomas at age of 38 was turned into 28 mpg player, Taj Gipson somehow, last year was ahaed of Noel in rotation. Jamal Crawford at age of 37 playing 6th man on Minessota...

- no offense whatsoever
- no set plays
- handpicking players to play based on non basketball reasons
- flexing muscles against front offices to show them who is dummer man... or in his mind "who has bigger balls"
- crashing and burning Minessota Timberwolves


And one of my favorites, after years of being extra harsh to rookies for no reason, deciding out of all people you coached, that f**** Josh Okogie is your starting level guard.

For f*** sake. If those teams had hired chat GPT to run their teams, they would have so much more sucess.

i love how each and every team has been on has pathetic playoff performances mostly because he can't run offense to save his life. I will NEVER forget days when he made f*** Joakim Noah focal point of offense and how he actually had setplays where Noah was getting mid range jumpers.

You know, this dead eye shooter

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

What are people's thoughts on this whole Harden drama?

I only have cursory info, but it seems like Harden randomly picked LAC. It almost seems like it's news to the Clips...

How weird is it that he picked them, didn't go back to Houston after all the drama last year.

Seems like a real out of touch with reality type scenario.

[Bensational]

What are people's thoughts on this whole Harden drama?

I only have cursory info, but it seems like Harden randomly picked LAC. It almost seems like it's news to the Clips...

How weird is it that he picked them, didn't go back to Houston after all the drama last year.

Seems like a real out of touch with reality type scenario.

He screwed himself and overvalued himself. He wants his money and wants to play on a contender but not Philly. No contenders in FA wanted to spend money on him, and now none seem to want to spend to get him via trade. He should’ve taken the FVV money from Houston, but he probably knows the west is too competitive for him to make the play ins.

They could do a Harden/Lillard swap and he could try take Portland where Lillard couldn’t, but that’s unlikely.

His best trade partners are probably in the east:

NYK for Barret + Fournier
CHI for LaVine

or maybe to NOP for Ingram if the Pelicans are feeling self destructive.

[SOUL]

Houston didn't want Harden after initially being interested, and Harden didn't want Houston after Green's comments.

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

What are people's thoughts on this whole Harden drama?

I only have cursory info, but it seems like Harden randomly picked LAC. It almost seems like it's news to the Clips...

How weird is it that he picked them, didn't go back to Houston after all the drama last year.

Seems like a real out of touch with reality type scenario.

He screwed himself and overvalued himself. He wants his money and wants to play on a contender but not Philly. No contenders in FA wanted to spend money on him, and now none seem to want to spend to get him via trade. He should’ve taken the FVV money from Houston, but he probably knows the west is too competitive for him to make the play ins.

They could do a Harden/Lillard swap and he could try take Portland where Lillard couldn’t, but that’s unlikely.

His best trade partners are probably in the east:

NYK for Barret + Fournier
CHI for LaVine

or maybe to NOP for Ingram if the Pelicans are feeling self destructive.

Agreed, but I'm stymied by the whole request to be traded to one team thing lately. In Harden's case, it seems bizarre. Or Clippers really trying to avoid tampering charges.

[SOUL]

New thread pls.