Around the NBA 2019-20

[Qwigglez]

158 points for the Rockets. That's crazy.

[Saberestar]

Bender

Yeah, he is yet stealing money from the league. Learning the game and making millions...what a life .
Good for him.

[Bogyo]

Bender

Yeah, he is yet stealing money from the league. Learning the game and making millions...what a life .
Good for him.

And if it doesn't work out he can still go back to the euroleague and make nice money there for another couple of years.

Funny how life can be so easy (at least look easy, I'm sure everyone is fighting their own battles and demons inside) when you are 7 feet and have a bit of feel for bball. Good for him, not sour about this one at all, he seems to be a good kid, and a good human being from what I know. Just funny how he'll be over 15 mill in earnings at 22, while not being able to do the thing at a high level he is paid to do.

[Dual]

Lakers can defend Doncic with physicality.
I hate this, some teams have to fight through more things than others.
One of those teams are the Suns, sadly.

[sunsbg]

Mavs leading playing team ball with Doncic on the bench. Mavs bench players are criminally underrated by some people that want to picture Luka as a superman.

AD looking very good taking high percentage shots in the post. Surprising he's only at 48FG% for the season.

[sunsbg]

Lakers can defend Doncic with physicality.
I hate this, some teams have to fight through more things than others.
One of those teams are the Suns, sadly.

Lakers and Lebron are higher in the hierarchy, that's how it works.

[bwgood77]

Lakers can defend Doncic with physicality.
I hate this, some teams have to fight through more things than others.
One of those teams are the Suns, sadly.

Of course they are knocking down on a lot of 3s though and somehow getting a lot of 2nd chance points.

[bwgood77]

Mavs leading playing team ball with Doncic on the bench. Mavs bench players are criminally underrated by some people that want to picture Luka as a superman.

AD looking very good taking high percentage shots in the post. Surprising he's only at 48FG% for the season.

Yeah, there was at least one thread on the GB about his +/- not being great and some bench players just as good...or a guy like Delon Wright. But if you noticed, Booker mirrored him in minutes, at least early, and so did LeBron in this game so far. So the bench guys being so good can be misleading because the other team usually sits their stars at the same time. But they do hold their own pretty good, and have always been well coached. We couldn't take advantage of the bench which we had been good at doing early.

[Dual]

Lakers can defend Doncic with physicality.
I hate this, some teams have to fight through more things than others.
One of those teams are the Suns, sadly.

Of course they are knocking down on a lot of 3s though and somehow getting a lot of 2nd chance points.

Yep, Dallas is a good team. No big names but very cohesive.
That makes me think how much we have regressed

[sunsbg]

Mavs leading playing team ball with Doncic on the bench. Mavs bench players are criminally underrated by some people that want to picture Luka as a superman.

AD looking very good taking high percentage shots in the post. Surprising he's only at 48FG% for the season.

Yeah, there was at least one thread on the GB about his +/- not being great and some bench players just as good...or a guy like Delon Wright. But if you noticed, Booker mirrored him in minutes, at least early, and so did LeBron in this game so far. So the bench guys being so good can be misleading because the other team usually sits their stars at the same time. But they do hold their own pretty good, and have always been well coached. We couldn't take advantage of the bench which we had been good at doing early.

Agreed, I'm not looking at stats much in general, but in most Mavs games I have watched the role players were just fine, so calling them trash by Luka fans is undeserved.

Mavs dominating right now.

[Revived]

The Mavs beat us with Luka and just one other player (THJ) scoring in double digits for them the entire game.

Their “second best player” had a whooping 2 pts against us.

[Revived]

He just called for a screen to get LeBron on him and then iso’d and hit a step back 3 in LeBron’s face.

This Euro 20 yr old kid might have the biggest balls in the NBA.

[bwgood77]

Lakers can defend Doncic with physicality.
I hate this, some teams have to fight through more things than others.
One of those teams are the Suns, sadly.

Of course they are knocking down on a lot of 3s though and somehow getting a lot of 2nd chance points.

Yep, Dallas is a good team. No big names but very cohesive.
That makes me think how much we have regressed

Well, Dallas has been on fire. They won 5 in a row, including wins against Toronto and beating the Rockets in Houston by 14. Also beat the Spurs and then had to 40+ pt wins in there. Their only loss was against the Clippers and then they play us next, having been on fire before a loss where Doncic felt he let his team down.

The fact we played them as close as we did without Ayton, and now they look like they will beat the Lakers in LA by 20, that loss wasn't so bad in hindsight. I'm sure they will have their tough stretches too. I think they are kind of surprising some teams in their first game against the new and improved Doncic, and teams may adjust. For us, I think we may have surprised some early with Baynes in there, and when Ayton comes back it will provide another thing teams havent's seen from (if he's vastly improved) so hopefully that will give us a HUGE boost.

[Saberestar]

Good win from Grizzlies against the Wolves. We are half game closer to the playoffs now.

[bwgood77]

Good win from Grizzlies against the Wolves. We are half game closer to the playoffs now.

I think Wolves may fade some. I think Blazers will start winning more at some point and then get into a late playoff spot. Six teams seem pretty set. I think Blazers might get 7th, especially if Nurkic comes back and then we'd have to beat the Kings, Wolves and Pelicans out for the other one.

[bwgood77]

Raptors are up 66-29 on the Jazz in the 2nd quarter. Spurs lost big to the Pistons.

Not sure who I want to win between OKC and the Pelicans. I think OKC despite their better record because when Zion comes back I expect the Pelicans to play at a higher level.

But if OKC stays healthy and guys like Schroeder keep having big games off the bench they have a pretty good top 7 or 8, and really a nice starting unit with Paul, SGA, Ferguson, Gallinari and Adams. They also had another guy off the bench score 23 and 19 in the last two games, named Abdel Nader. Then they have Nerlens Noel who is decent.

I don't expect Presti cares much about winning and might deal with some of these guys so I think I'd rather them hand the Pelicans another loss.

I was thinking about it the other day. Figures that GS will probably get a top 4 pick....top 5 probably at worst. Then the Spurs too. GS the favorite to win it all for 5 years straight instantly gets a high pick, right after somehow getting another past 2nd round pick all star for KD who was leaving anyway.

Spurs will probably end up getting first pick though, with their lottery luck over the past 32 years...I think they've been in lottery three times and gotten the 1st pick twice and 3rd pick once.

[spanishninja]

Good win from Grizzlies against the Wolves. We are half game closer to the playoffs now.

I think Wolves may fade some. I think Blazers will start winning more at some point and then get into a late playoff spot. Six teams seem pretty set. I think Blazers might get 7th, especially if Nurkic comes back and then we'd have to beat the Kings, Wolves and Pelicans out for the other one.

I think this might be somewhat good for us because it might pressure Sarver and Jones to make a big trade for a PF. I think even if we eat Griffin or Love's contract for a couple more years we owe it to ourselves to try at this point. waiting for next year is ill-advised because the warriors will be back.

[Qwigglez]

Who are the Spurs trading LMA to though? They aren't known to trade players mid-season but with Aldridge expiring next year as well as being 34, they gotta be thinking rebuild. This might be the first time in a long time that the Spurs make a mid-season trade.
Also I didn't realize that the Spurs finished the 2015-16 season with a 67-15 record. Overlooked since the Warriors finished the season 73-9.

[lilfishi22]

Who are the Spurs trading LMA to though? They aren't known to trade players mid-season but with Aldridge expiring next year as well as being 34, they gotta be thinking rebuild. This might be the first time in a long time that the Spurs make a mid-season trade.
Also I didn't realize that the Spurs finished the 2015-16 season with a 67-15 record. Overlooked since the Warriors finished the season 73-9.

They actually extended him (again like a week ago) so he'll pick up his player option for next season and have another 2yr $50m after that. Not entirely sure what the thinking there is.

[KLEON]

I'm not the biggest Ayton fan but when he comes back he better be averaging 25 pts and 12 rebs per game because Luka is making him look like a arse clown. BTW I also wonder how the Hawks feel?