RealGM

Season tipped off tonight.

LeQueen and the Cadavers lose to the Celts at Boston's ring ceremony.

And now, Oden is making his NBA debut against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

The Bulls also beat the Bucks tonight on League Pass (for those that don't have League Pass I believe it's free for the first two weeks of the season (or at least it was in years past)).

I didn't watch a lick of that game, but in looking at the boxscore, both of those rosters look horribly unbalanced.

The Bulls appear to running Gooden primarily at center and the Bucks are really thin at PF. I think both of these squads are going to struggle this year unless they make some trades to balance their rosters.

I've believed this from day one, but let me just put it into writing now. Oden is going to be a bust!!

Oden had to leave his first game with a foot injury. I wouldn't be surprised if it's broken and he misses he season. This guy is the next Sam Bowie.

Also, DeMarcus Nelson will be the Warriors' starting PG tonight. I really wanted the Wiz to pick him up this offseason. IMO he'd be a better option than either Dee Brown or Juan Dixon.

When you get over 40, it's hard to stay healthy. Cut the old guy a break.

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Toronto at Philadelphia 6:00 PM
Atlanta at Orlando 7:00 PM
New Jersey at Washington 7:00 PM
Miami at NY Knicks 7:30 PM
Indiana at Detroit 8:00 PM
Sacramento at Minnesota 8:00 PM
Phoenix at San Antonio 8:00 PM
Milwaukee at Oklahoma City 8:00 PM
Memphis at Houston 8:30 PM
Denver at Utah 9:00 PM
New Orleans at Golden State 10:30 PM
LA Lakers at LA Clippers 10:30 PM

*Bold = on ESPN

And remember that NBA League Pass is free from October 27th to November 4th.

POR really didn't look that good at all. Neither Roy nor Aldridge looked
ready for prime time. Just one game and against good competition, but
I agree with Barkley, they could easily miss the playoffs. Not sure why
the announcers were spouting off about Oden's offense. I don't see it
being even at the level of Howard's who at least can score off garbage
and putbacks. And who in the west is Oden going to do well against?
As they were saying, the road ahead looks tough.

The Blazers will be fine. They need a point guard badly, but they'll be fine. They're not ready to beat a team like the Lakers at home though. That's too much to ask with such a young team.

not sure what you mean by "they'll be fine". IMO, they'll have to really beat up
on the east (again) to have a winning record. And even if they do that, I'm not sure
who they beat among the NINE teams that finished ahead of them last year esp
if Oden does turn out to be injury prone.

I didn't realize that the Suns game was on ESPN. That's a game I really want to see.

People expect too much too soon out of Portland. I think the problem is that they exceeded all expectations last year. Remember, they were expected to win in the lower thirties before the season started. In turn, this is the season where they should have been talking about going .500, maybe just maybe competing for a playoff spot. Alas, they played a bit over their head last year, and many seem to have forgotten that over the summer, so expectations were set too high coming into the season.

I say it's reasonable to consider their season acceptable if they match last year's record, and a solid all-around success if they are a legit contender for a playoff spot. Next year is the year that failing to escape the lottery should be considered a failure.

MJG wrote:People expect too much too soon out of Portland. I think the problem is that they exceeded all expectations last year. Remember, they were expected to win in the lower thirties before the season started. In turn, this is the season where they should have been talking about going .500, maybe just maybe competing for a playoff spot. Alas, they played a bit over their head last year, and many seem to have forgotten that over the summer, so expectations were set too high coming into the season.

I say it's reasonable to consider their season acceptable if they match last year's record, and a solid all-around success if they are a legit contender for a playoff spot. Next year is the year that failing to escape the lottery should be considered a failure.

It's only one game. Against a loaded and locked Lakers team who will likely win at least 65 games this year.

Alot does depend on Oden though. If he can give them at least 60 games of solid low post D they'll be quite a formidable squad...this year. So far he seems jinxed like Sam Bowie but time will tell.

They are absolutely loaded with talent though. I disagree with yungal that they need a PG though. They've got three combo guards who all could be all-stars in their own right one day. Roy, Bayless & Fernandez. That trio could be their 3-guard rotation for years to come as they are all interchangeable. Blake is a nice change of pace as reserve PG. They just need time to jell together.

Lets see where they are 20 games from now before making a judgement on how their season might play out. That's a team that I'll be watching closely this year. I'll be watching alot of their games this year on league pass.

Anyone have any idea why Joe Alexander didn't play last night? Just Skiles being Skiles, or is there an injury I missed?

fugop wrote:Anyone have any idea why Joe Alexander didn't play last night? Just Skiles being Skiles, or is there an injury I missed?

Skiles is being a d*ck already? Wow, it usually takes at least half a season. Milwaukee may not be as good as I thought they would be.

In his first game with the Heat, Mario Chalmers started at PG and had 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists with only 1 turnover. He shot 2-4 on 3PT shots and was 7-13 FG overall.

Seems Chalmers is even better than I thought. A lot of us liked him on draft night, when the Wizards opted to ignore their woeful perimeter defense. That was before they resigned Gil for 111 Mil. (I recall getting flamed for suggesting in a post the Wizards could draft Chalmers and Hendrix and not resign Gil or Antawn, but instead pursue somebody like Posey for the MLE...)

Chalmers is no Jacque Vaughn. He's a guy that's going to win a lot of games as a starting PG.

^ A lot of us were with you on Chalmers, CCJ. McGee has made me a believer that he was the right pick at #18 but I'm still salty about Grunfeld not getting another late first to pickup a guy like Chalmers, especially with our PG situation in doubt.

Darrell Arthur had a good line too: 11 points, 15 boards, 2 blocks, a steal, an assist, no turnovers, 5/9 shooting. Looks like those Kansas guys could play. Who'd have thunk it.

Re Chalmers...

except that the Heat lost giving up a ton of points in doing so
His scoring line looked really good but it was a run-gun game
so the stats are a bit inflated.

That said, it was one game and you both (LR/CCJ) may turn out
to be right.

fugop wrote:Darrell Arthur had a good line too: 11 points, 15 boards, 2 blocks, a steal, an assist, no turnovers, 5/9 shooting. Looks like those Kansas guys could play. Who'd have thunk it.

Arthur's line was more impressive to me. 15 rebounds! This from a guy who struggled to rebound in college & in the summer league. Memphis has three good rookies in Mayo, Arthur & M. Gasol. That's an interesting team to watch.