2024 NBA Preseason Discussion & Game Thread! (October 4-18)

[SlimShady83]

Christie, JHS, Knecht all look like they can contribute this season. That's good to see.

Christie should be starting over DLO IMO plays well both ends of the floor

[SweaterBae]

Imagine wasting a roster spot at a franchise (pretending to) compete, on Bronny James.

[Teen Girl Squad]

Yeah I think Braun is actually better than KCP at this point.

KCP exists only to torch the Lakers and literally do nothing else for the rest of the season.

[Calinks]

Holy crap, Leonard Miller bumbling that inbound ball and turning it over leading to that foul and two free throws at the end just cost me the timberwolves 17.5 spread. That was ridiculous, such a dumb play just killed me LMAO, ouch! Dude just had to hang on to the damn ball and the game was over.

[LikeMike23]

Imagine wasting a roster spot at a franchise (pretending to) compete, on Bronny James.

The Lakers aren't pretending to compete. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last year and brought back the same team. They're just using LeBron and Bronny to sell tickets.

[SweaterBae]

Holy crap, Leonard Miller bumbling that inbound ball and turning it over leading to that foul and two free throws at the end just cost me the timberwolves 17.5 spread. That was ridiculous, such a dumb play just killed me LMAO, ouch! Dude just had to hang on to the damn ball and the game was over.

If you care about the spread in a preseason game, you have a problem.

[Calinks]

Holy crap, Leonard Miller bumbling that inbound ball and turning it over leading to that foul and two free throws at the end just cost me the timberwolves 17.5 spread. That was ridiculous, such a dumb play just killed me LMAO, ouch! Dude just had to hang on to the damn ball and the game was over.

If you care about the spread in a preseason game, you have a problem.

[QPR]

It's a shame LeBron's ego took priority over Bronny's development. There's an impactful defensive player in there, but he clearly needed more college development.

[zimpy27]

It's a shame LeBron's ego took priority over Bronny's development. There's an impactful defensive player in there, but he clearly needed more college development.

Are there things in college that NBA coaches just can't access?

[Tottery]

Hopefully JJ is smart enough to give Knecht valuable minutes. He has the potential to be what everyone wants Reaves to become. I'm not going off 1 pre-season game either. I watched him play for UT and summer league (when he was available).

[Lost Angel]

It's a shame LeBron's ego took priority over Bronny's development. There's an impactful defensive player in there, but he clearly needed more college development.

Are there things in college that NBA coaches just can't access?

exactly, also it seems like EVERYBODY has forgotten that Bronny was projected as a mid first round pick before the heart issue.

[darbstar]

Eaglerly waiting for some nba to watch even if it’s preseason I have say how ordinary the game has become to watch - Fiba basketball is worlds ahead rather than watching guys run up and down the court chucking up shots with no defence.

How can basketball be soo different
Honestly the nba is getting really sad the way it is played - each team running up the court taking their turn to chuck up a shot is not a fun spectacle

[Decipher]

Eaglerly waiting for some nba to watch even if it’s preseason I have say how ordinary the game has become to watch - Fiba basketball is worlds ahead rather than watching guys run up and down the court chucking up shots with no defence.

How can basketball be soo different
Honestly the nba is getting really sad the way it is played - each team running up the court taking their turn to chuck up a shot is not a fun spectacle

Many people like defence and there’s not a lot of incentive to play it

Lots of games, superstar calls, flopping rewarded etc

[BruttoNostra]

Ah, so sportswashing has arrived in the NBA. Wait until one of those countries buys an NBA team and completely breaks the league's competitiveness by outspending everyone else because they have unlimited money. They then can't be sanctioned by league rules because they can hire the best lawyers and win any legal challenges to their supremacy. Just like in the Big 5 European fútbol leagues.

This isn’t how the league works. If any owner tried to pull this the league would force them to sell the team. You don’t think Steve Ballmer doesn’t have the money to try something like this ($122b net worth)? Every transaction has to go through the league office and they wouldn’t approve any of them. It’s ridiculous to think any team could skirt the rules in the way you’re implying.

In Europe their teams do plenty of similar stuff.
There is a sort of budget-constraint were you can't spend much more than what you earn, so teams like PSG have semi-fake sponsorship deals for huge $ with companies affiliated with team owners (boosting their revenues and thus enabling them to spend more). Similarly with players salaries, where players might get guaranteed "sponsopships" money. Another thing is maintaining "farm" clubs n the leagues without such a budget constraint, that might be able to sell you players under their real values.

Projecting to NBA - it can be under the table/sponsorships money to free agents - and good lawyers might help to explain why your starter resigned for half the previous money, and suddenly has many fans in the Gulf, so in "unrelated" move he has now a $20M a year sponsorship deal with Dubai mall or something. My example is exaggerated, ofc, but you got the idea

[Mrakar]

How is this a real tittle? And they put Bronny first in there
Lebron's media machine is working overtime these days...

[NO-KG-AI]

Lebron’s camp needs to just take a page from the Kawhi camp and just be silent about it. Wait until he has a game where he drains some 3’s or something. The constant need to tell us he was actually good despite what we all see is the part causing all the blowback.

[QPR]

It's a shame LeBron's ego took priority over Bronny's development. There's an impactful defensive player in there, but he clearly needed more college development.

Are there things in college that NBA coaches just can't access?

Regular playing time at a decent level?

[UcanUwill]

Cancar dethroned Jingles from his title as "player most likely to be confused with security guard".

for me.... its Nurkic and if you remember Nikola Pekovic, I wonder if he's a bouncer these days.

Rumors said Pek was in the mob these days, but I always thought it was bogus. Serbian fans could probably share more light. Pek obviously famous for being huge, intimidating and looking like a Kryptonian villain from Superman 2, he is honestly way too big and strong looking to be average security guard, rich night club bouncer sure, but most NBA security guards are just confident, but normal looking American men, they aren't Pekovic. I always bring this up, but Pekovic was the only center in Europe who could guard Sofoklis 1 on 1, at least to a point, massive man.

I maintain that the Jazz are better than the Wizards.

I think WIzards are the worst team in the league, so yes. Jazz coach alone makes a huge difference, it was funny seeing AInge trying to downgrade Jazz roster 3 times over, because they always play too good for the tank. Neither team has long list of actual NBA players, but Wizards only have Kuzma, Valančiūnas and Brogdon, thats just freaking sad.

Ah, so sportswashing has arrived in the NBA. Wait until one of those countries buys an NBA team and completely breaks the league's competitiveness by outspending everyone else because they have unlimited money. They then can't be sanctioned by league rules because they can hire the best lawyers and win any legal challenges to their supremacy. Just like in the Big 5 European fútbol leagues.

This isn’t how the league works. If any owner tried to pull this the league would force them to sell the team. You don’t think Steve Ballmer doesn’t have the money to try something like this ($122b net worth)? Every transaction has to go through the league office and they wouldn’t approve any of them. It’s ridiculous to think any team could skirt the rules in the way you’re implying.

Although it is sad that money is the only thing that matters, and they do business with such conservative countries that lacks basic human rights in lots of fields, but Saudis buying NBA team is not a threat at all. I said this before, but what if Saudis actually starts caring about Basketball, forms their own league, and offers guys 400 million a year to play for them? That is already happening with Football (Soccer) stars.
NBA fans often criticize international leagues for not having CAP rules, but CAP rules only really work when you already by far the richest league in the world. Imagine NBA rules saying the max you can pay Luka or Jokic is 60 Mil, while Saudis at the same time offering 400 million. I know it sounds inconcievable today that top 5 player in the world wouldn't play in the NBA, but sooner or later, it would happen, and it would get worse. We already have guys like Ronaldo playing in Saudi league.

[UcanUwill]

Do you have some surprising impressions? Thursday and Friday were Euroleague opening, so I watched that a lot, and uploaded few highlight videos on youtube, was preoccupied with that, couldn't catch any NBA game.

[kg01]

How is this a real tittle? And they put Bronny first in there
Lebron's media machine is working overtime these days...

They're not doing this to help Lebron. They're doing it because it generates clicks and views. If anything, this is them using him.