Around the NBA (3.0), 2018-19 (Non-Celtics Talk)

[Valid]

LeBron James defended his recent comments about playing with Anthony Davis by saying "I play by the rules".

When told that his comments upset several small-market general managers, James responded, "So? What'd I do? What did I do? Was it right or wrong?"

James then listed off other players he'd like to play with, starting with Kevin Durant. He added "ask me if I'd like to play with Jimmy Butler. Say it right now. Ask me about Kyrie Irving, Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. Ask me about [Joel] Embiid, Ben Simmons. Go ahead, all of them. Luka Doncic. Ask me right now. Come on, guys, this is not rocket science. These are great players...I would love to play with a lot of great players..."

James said he wasn't surprised by the attention his comments received, stating "anything I say will generate something".

I NEED HELP ! MY TEAM SUCKS !

I hate Lebron as much as the next person but our record is almost exactly the same as the Lakers. And we're playing in what is still the JV conference.

The East might be stronger than the West this year. The West isn't great. Like, at all.

[C-West]

National TV Rondo. Still love that guy - even when he wears purple. Such a uniquely effective player.

[Jakeopp]

I'm going to say this and eat a large plate of crow because of it later: the Warriors are no longer a dominant team. They'll be competitive, sure, but someone else takes the title home this year. Draymond is overrated and it's really showing this year. Klay's shooting percentage from deep has dropped 10%. The bench is trash. Cousins won't be saving them. He's never been a winning player and he's coming off a significant injury.

Maybe they're on cruise control for the regular season and Boogie returns to form by the playoffs. I'm expecting the path to the finals to be much more difficult for them though.

[Valid]

I'm going to say this and eat a large plate of crow because of it later: the Warriors are no longer a dominant team. They'll be competitive, sure, but someone else takes the title home this year. Draymond is overrated and it's really showing this year. Klay's shooting percentage from deep has dropped 10%. The bench is trash. Cousins won't be saving them. He's never been a winning player and he's coming off a significant injury.

Maybe they're on cruise control for the regular season and Boogie returns to form by the playoffs. I'm expecting the path to the finals to be much more difficult for them though.

Basically everything you said here is true. Their depth sucks, Draymond is showing that his 2016 season where he was actually hitting threes was a fluke, Iguodala and Livingston are almost cooked, Cousins isn't going to help nearly as much as people think and I think there are legitimately internal issues there that are bleeding out into the team's play.

All of that being said, I still think they are coasting. I am 99.9 percent positive they will at least represent the West in the finals (as the West just isn't very good), although they are more vulnerable now than they have ever been. We can beat that team in a seven-game series.

[Valid]

"It wasn't hard getting guys in Miami, I'll tell you that. So now that I think being in L.A., I don't think it would be that hard to get guys here," said James.

Lol. Guess that's why Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George (who has dreamed of playing for the Lakers his whole life) and Jimmy Butler all rejected you.

LeBron is in denial and it's both sad and hilarious at the same time.

[SuperDeluxe]

^^^If you are the best player in the world but you still need to do recruiting, then something must be very, very wrong.

[KevinGamble34]

Kyrie doing some recruiting?

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Valid]

^^^

I noticed Embiid was being very buddy-buddy with the Celtics after the game yesterday, which is NOT like him. I guess he is finally realizing that kids need to respect their fathers.

[celticfan42487]

Irving is buddy buddy with everyone in the league.

Tatum and Embiid are well documented great friends.

Embiid and Irving actually would be a great pair game wise, but their egos and need to be the man and lack of willingness to play or do what's best for the team above their own selfishness would guarantee they'd never work together and moreso one of them would automatically demand a trade in a season or less time. And potentially both would feeling the franchise has disrespected them beyond acceptable measures by even considering not acknowledging them as the greatest player on the team and in control of the franchise.

[Iguodaladon]

Watching Rondo dominate the Warriors last night brought a tear to my eye, could do with some of that passion and leadership on our team :')

[Taget]

Kyrie doing some recruiting?

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Kyrie can offer something Lebron never can. A role in the next Uncle Drew movie!

[La Flame]

"It wasn't hard getting guys in Miami, I'll tell you that. So now that I think being in L.A., I don't think it would be that hard to get guys here," said James.

Lol. Guess that's why Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George (who has dreamed of playing for the Lakers his whole life) and Jimmy Butler all rejected you.

LeBron is in denial and it's both sad and hilarious at the same time.

I'm betting fakers end up with Boogie

[Andrew McCeltic]

I'm going to say this and eat a large plate of crow because of it later: the Warriors are no longer a dominant team. They'll be competitive, sure, but someone else takes the title home this year. Draymond is overrated and it's really showing this year. Klay's shooting percentage from deep has dropped 10%. The bench is trash. Cousins won't be saving them. He's never been a winning player and he's coming off a significant injury.

Maybe they're on cruise control for the regular season and Boogie returns to form by the playoffs. I'm expecting the path to the finals to be much more difficult for them though.

Basically everything you said here is true. Their depth sucks, Draymond is showing that his 2016 season where he was actually hitting threes was a fluke, Iguodala and Livingston are almost cooked, Cousins isn't going to help nearly as much as people think and I think there are legitimately internal issues there that are bleeding out into the team's play.

All of that being said, I still think they are coasting. I am 99.9 percent positive they will at least represent the West in the finals (as the West just isn't very good), although they are more vulnerable now than they have ever been. We can beat that team in a seven-game series.

Golden State does look like just another good team this year, not a favorite. But even if they're not head and shoulders above the rest of the league anymore, they're neck and neck. The Raptors, Bucks, Thunder, and maybe the Lakers could take them out. I'm not sold on the Nuggets - I think they're built to win a lot of regular season games but I'm skeptical that they're ready to win a championship. I think this could be Oklahoma City's year, actually.

[Green89]

Whiteside is crushing Ibaka so far in the Heat-Raptor game.

[Homerclease]

I'm going to say this and eat a large plate of crow because of it later: the Warriors are no longer a dominant team. They'll be competitive, sure, but someone else takes the title home this year. Draymond is overrated and it's really showing this year. Klay's shooting percentage from deep has dropped 10%. The bench is trash. Cousins won't be saving them. He's never been a winning player and he's coming off a significant injury.

Maybe they're on cruise control for the regular season and Boogie returns to form by the playoffs. I'm expecting the path to the finals to be much more difficult for them though.

Basically everything you said here is true. Their depth sucks, Draymond is showing that his 2016 season where he was actually hitting threes was a fluke, Iguodala and Livingston are almost cooked, Cousins isn't going to help nearly as much as people think and I think there are legitimately internal issues there that are bleeding out into the team's play.

All of that being said, I still think they are coasting. I am 99.9 percent positive they will at least represent the West in the finals (as the West just isn't very good), although they are more vulnerable now than they have ever been. We can beat that team in a seven-game series.

Golden State does look like just another good team this year, not a favorite. But even if they're not head and shoulders above the rest of the league anymore, they're neck and neck. The Raptors, Bucks, Thunder, and maybe the Lakers could take them out. I'm not sold on the Nuggets - I think they're built to win a lot of regular season games but I'm skeptical that they're ready to win a championship. I think this could be Oklahoma City's year, actually.

They are 100% sleepwalking

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

Watching Rondo dominate the Warriors last night brought a tear to my eye, could do with some of that passion and leadership on our team :')

No offence, but Rondo only showed up when he was on national television. I liked him when he was here, but the guy mailed it in quite often.

[Celtics_History_Lesson]

"Celtic Sign 15-Year-Old Karamoko Dembele"

Thought that headline was very strange.


What is that stuff doing on the basketball page? Was wondering why the team name was missing a letter, how they were allowed to sign a teenager, and if this person could hit free throws.



So the good teams, for ratings and fans, played yesterday, and all the bad teams play now.

The ABA teams, the erroneous foreign two expansion teams, the new Charlotte expansion team, the old Charlotte and relocated expansion team and the three others that entered the NBA around that time, the Dallas expansion team of Mark Aguirre, that other LA team.

It would seem the Bulls have been relegated to the lower division.


Celtics are best. Bucks, Rockets, Seattle, 76ers of Wilt, Lakers of Wilt, Warriors of Wilt, considered to be better than teams playing today. Knicks are the NBA's own team, they won't relegate them. Utah, a surprise, as everyone else on the big team list has a title, although the Jazz were cheated out of a title by the refs when the drink spokesman pushed off on Bryon. Portland, Jake Layman's team, they have to play on Christmas.


Those Bucks uniforms were bad.



That Toronto team, even having three refs in the pocket does not help these days. Take away their two rented Spurs, they had 25 points for the first half.

One of the refs in the Toronto-Miami game is called Green. Not sure if one of the others is related to Kawhi, or Bruno.

[celticfan42487]

Whiteside is crushing Ibaka so far in the Heat-Raptor game.

Just came here to comment how I don't want to blow the load but Raptors down 14 at the half against a .500 team.

Hard to know what can possibly hurt that machine as they sit everyone out everygame and keep ticking. But down that much... it looks like their defense is hurting them.

They're down two starters in Val and Lowry at the moment. And while they've done well in this tough stretch of games, I think I underestimated how important Val may be to their team.

Now that run is over for their schedule I was hoping we'd be a game or two up on them in the standings but we need them to drop everything they can.

[jmr07019]

I want to watch heat raps but the heats bright pink jerseys are realllllly tough to watch

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

You guys jinxed it. Smh