2025-2026: Around the League

[pepe1991]

Houston isn't going anywhere this season and they will never win with KD as their best scoring wing. Thy need a real point guard and another wing scorer to be taken seriously

And you assumed all that from playing double OT vs defending champions in game one, on a road?
They literally missed two buzzerbeaters

While Houston probably needs another guard to win a title, pretending that team isn't really f*** good is silly.

Like, even by watching Eurobasket it was clear that Segun is leaping into top 10 player especially at position where pretty much 99% of nba teams has no tools to guard such player ( similar case to Jokić and his dominance ). Skilled, heavy, tall. Bigger Cs are too slow, faster Cs are too light. I Hart, who is elite defender, looked silly vs him. They tried with smaller guards like Caruso & Dort, he just chew them up.

And both Amen and Jabari can play smaller role with Durant & Segun gravity. Amen has no business taking 7 threes a night, but by watching preseason & season opener it is clear that Jabari will have best season yet, because his role is so simplified. 3 and D, cut, play defense, hit open 3s.

btw can we NOT pretend that Houston overpaid Durant? They gave 2 worthless, overrated, overpaid bums for him. Walmart Lavine & wannabe Bruce Bowen.

[GelbeWand09]

Team Sengun pre draft. Had him for our 8th pick. Only questionmark was defense. Elite Scoring and passing potential you have seen in Europe already. It was absolute clear that he is a 20 ppg player in his 2nd or 3rd year.

As talented as Luka is (probably top 3-4 offensive talents ever) , there is hardly a player or playing style that I enjoy watching less.

[GelbeWand09]

But had Giddey at 5 because of our traditional PG drought so probably not better than our current outcome. Lol

[pepe1991]

But had Giddey at 5 because of our traditional PG drought so probably not better than our current outcome. Lol

Giddey isn't bad or untalented or something like that, he is just odd fit for modern nba era.

Like, i would experiment with him at PF. Pick&roll as screener where he makes decisions off catch, and hide him on defense on slower wings, while pairing him with rim protector.

Bulls avoided overpaying him, kept him in around 15% of salary cap. Somehow, they are paying him less than Kings are paying for Keegan Murray

[Idiosyncratic]

Houston will be good. I thought Sheppard actually showed some glimpses at times, thinking of a stretch where he had a block and a steal where it reminded me of his Kentucky days-- But for the most part he looked overmatched and the game was moving too fast for him. He also has random moments where he has absolutely no conscience, which I noticed in summer league, but assumed it was because it was (meaningless) summer league. A byproduct of people being in his ear telling him to be aggressive I assume, because aggression is often the assumed panacea for young players. Regardless it does look like they will need guard help this year. The problem is I don't know how they match salary for some of the obvious options like CJ McCollum or Simons and a lot of the cheaper options just aren't that good and I can see why they would want to try Reed first.

Also Amen Thompson has one of flattest shots I have ever seen.

OKC is OKC, but the playoffs showed they are beatable and last night you kind of saw the same thing. Play a lot of zone which seems to drop Shai's efficiency a bit and hope the role players brick a bunch of 3s. They still have a chance to win every game in spite of that, but right now it seems like them missing 3s against good teams is becoming a bit of a trend and they feel more beatable than they did during last regular season.

[Knightro]

OKC is OKC, but the playoffs showed they are beatable and last night you kind of saw the same thing. Play a lot of zone which seems to drop Shai's efficiency a bit and hope the role players brick a bunch of 3s. They still have a chance to win every game in spite of that, but right now it seems like them missing 3s against good teams is becoming a bit of a trend and they feel more beatable than they did during last regular season.

OKC also didn't have Jalen Williams last night, so I wouldn't necessarily read *too* much into how they looked.

[Idiosyncratic]

OKC is OKC, but the playoffs showed they are beatable and last night you kind of saw the same thing. Play a lot of zone which seems to drop Shai's efficiency a bit and hope the role players brick a bunch of 3s. They still have a chance to win every game in spite of that, but right now it seems like them missing 3s against good teams is becoming a bit of a trend and they feel more beatable than they did during last regular season.

OKC also didn't have Jalen Williams last night, so I wouldn't necessarily read *too* much into how they looked.

I agree, I'd still have them as favorites this year fwiw. It's just that last year I thought they were going to steamroll the playoffs and realistically they probably lose to a healthy Nuggets team and then obviously the Pacers also took them 7. They've just been knocked down a peg in my head I guess. It feels like there is some sort of blueprint to beating them, whereas based off of their regular season performance last year I thought there was going to be less of a blueprint, if that makes sense. Maybe I was overrating them in my head a bit.

And I think they were 13-0 without Jdub last year and 42-8 without Chet so they just felt dominant no matter what. But yeah even if they lost full strength to a mediocre team I wouldn't react to it. I just feel like maybe there is a trend showing them as still the favorites, but more beatable than I expected I guess. But it could also just be shooting variance

[pepe1991]

OKC looks beatable, but nobody actually beats them

Their historic pissing over East in regular season will be forever recorded in books.

vs Pacers they had hickups, but also we should take in considiration they are team led to a title by 26 years old guy and two 22 years olds.

[eyriq]

OKC looks beatable, but nobody actually beats them

Their historic pissing over East in regular season will be forever recorded in books.

vs Pacers they had hickups, but also we should take in considiration they are team led to a title by 26 years old guy and two 22 years olds.

Jalen was 23, Chet was 22.

[pepe1991]

OKC looks beatable, but nobody actually beats them

Their historic pissing over East in regular season will be forever recorded in books.

vs Pacers they had hickups, but also we should take in considiration they are team led to a title by 26 years old guy and two 22 years olds.

Jalen was 23, Chet was 22.

Irrelevant? They are second youngest team to win title in history. Most people weren't even in their parents long term plans when youngest ever team won ( in 1977) Oldest starter was 26?

[Idiosyncratic]

OKC looks beatable, but nobody actually beats them

Their historic pissing over East in regular season will be forever recorded in books.

vs Pacers they had hickups, but also we should take in considiration they are team led to a title by 26 years old guy and two 22 years olds.

Agree on the age thing, not easy.

I know many hate on OKC, but I actually enjoy them quite a bit, so I wouldn't mind seeing them come out of the west again. Not winning it all though because that has to be the Magic

[eyriq]

OKC looks beatable, but nobody actually beats them

Their historic pissing over East in regular season will be forever recorded in books.

vs Pacers they had hickups, but also we should take in considiration they are team led to a title by 26 years old guy and two 22 years olds.

Jalen was 23, Chet was 22.

Irrelevant? They are second youngest team to win title in history. Most people weren't even in their parents long term plans when youngest ever team won ( in 1977) Oldest starter was 26?

Age matters. Crediting "two 22 year olds" with driving that team to a championship is both factually incorrect and conceptually flawed. JDub was older and SGA won MVP and drove the team to the championship.

[basketballRob]

The only team I'm interested in watching in the West is Portland. Denver is a little intriguing after the moves they made.

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[Darth Magic]

Houston isn't going anywhere this season and they will never win with KD as their best scoring wing. Thy need a real point guard and another wing scorer to be taken seriously

And you assumed all that from playing double OT vs defending champions in game one, on a road?
They literally missed two buzzerbeaters

While Houston probably needs another guard to win a title, pretending that team isn't really f*** good is silly.

Like, even by watching Eurobasket it was clear that Segun is leaping into top 10 player especially at position where pretty much 99% of nba teams has no tools to guard such player ( similar case to Jokić and his dominance ). Skilled, heavy, tall. Bigger Cs are too slow, faster Cs are too light. I Hart, who is elite defender, looked silly vs him. They tried with smaller guards like Caruso & Dort, he just chew them up.

And both Amen and Jabari can play smaller role with Durant & Segun gravity. Amen has no business taking 7 threes a night, but by watching preseason & season opener it is clear that Jabari will have best season yet, because his role is so simplified. 3 and D, cut, play defense, hit open 3s.

btw can we NOT pretend that Houston overpaid Durant? They gave 2 worthless, overrated, overpaid bums for him. Walmart Lavine & wannabe Bruce Bowen.

I’m not exactly sure what this rant is about but you do you. I think they are a very good team, but the loss of Vanvleet really messed them up. He needs to be replaced. They desperately need shooting and a 36 year old Durant isn't enough scoring on the wing. I said nothing about them over paying for Durant, so there's that. And for the record I didn't get that from a 2 OT game. I got that from watching one half.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

The 76ers rookie Edgecoombe has 32 points in his debuts against the Celtics and there is still time left in the 4th.

[Idiosyncratic]

The 76ers rookie Edgecoombe has 32 points in his debuts against the Celtics and there is still time left in the 4th.

Crazy debut, even though he did miss two clutch free throws at the end. They get the road win despite only getting 4 points from Embiid.

[Knightro]

The 76ers rookie Edgecoombe has 32 points in his debuts against the Celtics and there is still time left in the 4th.

3rd most points in NBA history by a player in their debut.

Trailing just Wilt Chamberlain in 1959 and Frank Selvy in 1954!

[ORLMagicGirl15]

The 76ers rookie Edgecoombe has 32 points in his debuts against the Celtics and there is still time left in the 4th.

3rd most points in NBA history by a player in their debut.

Trailing just Wilt Chamberlain in 1959 and Frank Selvy in 1954!

I really wish he wasn’t gifted to the Sixers. Other teams could have used him.

[basketballRob]

Edgecombe will be the best player on that team. He's like Suggs on defense.

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[Orlando Dawg]

Cooper Flagg has a long way to go