Around the NBA, 2017-18 Season thread

[NyCeEvO]

yes but why are you ignoring the build up that led to the suspension?

I agree there were some missed calls re DGreen earlier in that playoffs; and that he had established a rep for bad behavior. That was on him. This was largely what was used to justify the decision, and to support the conclusion of "intentional" contact at the time, and I think the majority of people would agree with you that it was fair The karma came back to bite him.

I just hate whenever the 2016 Championship is discussed having an asterisk in my mind. Were the Cavs the real champions that year. Could they have really defeated the historically great Warriors that year, even with a hurt Curry, without the help of the League's intervention? Was that extreme action of benching the best player for one team for an entire game really justified by the incident that occurred?

To me whenever LeBron tries to say the Cavs could beat the Warriors except for Durant being there, I think, are we forgetting how good the Warriors were that year -- the historic regular season year. Without Durant. I think twenty years from now when people look back on this era of NBA, that call by League will be seen as a mistake. And one that ended up seriously hurting the League because it led to Durant going to Warriors

The Cavs were the real champions. They were down 3-1 and won 3 straight games to win it out. The game Green was suspended for is irrelevant. He was back in the series for games 6 and 7. They got beat by double digits in game 6 and in Game 7 they lost at home.

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

[steady]

I agree there were some missed calls re DGreen earlier in that playoffs; and that he had established a rep for bad behavior. That was on him. This was largely what was used to justify the decision, and to support the conclusion of "intentional" contact at the time, and I think the majority of people would agree with you that it was fair The karma came back to bite him.

I just hate whenever the 2016 Championship is discussed having an asterisk in my mind. Were the Cavs the real champions that year. Could they have really defeated the historically great Warriors that year, even with a hurt Curry, without the help of the League's intervention? Was that extreme action of benching the best player for one team for an entire game really justified by the incident that occurred?

To me whenever LeBron tries to say the Cavs could beat the Warriors except for Durant being there, I think, are we forgetting how good the Warriors were that year -- the historic regular season year. Without Durant. I think twenty years from now when people look back on this era of NBA, that call by League will be seen as a mistake. And one that ended up seriously hurting the League because it led to Durant going to Warriors

The Cavs were the real champions. They were down 3-1 and won 3 straight games to win it out. The game Green was suspended for is irrelevant. He was back in the series for games 6 and 7. They got beat by double digits in game 6 and in Game 7 they lost at home.

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

I agree with that in terms of they both got one, so it evens out.

I do think though GSW would've won 2016 even with wear and tear if it hadn't been for Game 5 suspension. For Game 5, they were in Oracle with the chance to clinch it. Injuries to Bogut and Iggy may not have happened if not for being overextended because of Draymond Green's absence.

Things happen in sports though; injuries happen, bad calls happen.

[MrDollarBills]

I agree there were some missed calls re DGreen earlier in that playoffs; and that he had established a rep for bad behavior. That was on him. This was largely what was used to justify the decision, and to support the conclusion of "intentional" contact at the time, and I think the majority of people would agree with you that it was fair The karma came back to bite him.

I just hate whenever the 2016 Championship is discussed having an asterisk in my mind. Were the Cavs the real champions that year. Could they have really defeated the historically great Warriors that year, even with a hurt Curry, without the help of the League's intervention? Was that extreme action of benching the best player for one team for an entire game really justified by the incident that occurred?

To me whenever LeBron tries to say the Cavs could beat the Warriors except for Durant being there, I think, are we forgetting how good the Warriors were that year -- the historic regular season year. Without Durant. I think twenty years from now when people look back on this era of NBA, that call by League will be seen as a mistake. And one that ended up seriously hurting the League because it led to Durant going to Warriors

The Cavs were the real champions. They were down 3-1 and won 3 straight games to win it out. The game Green was suspended for is irrelevant. He was back in the series for games 6 and 7. They got beat by double digits in game 6 and in Game 7 they lost at home.

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

I was going to say, Lebron lost both Irving and Love on his way to the '15 finals loss.

There are no asterisks. That game 7 was on Golden State's floor and Lebron dominated them. They got beat clean in 2016.

[MrDollarBills]

The Cavs were the real champions. They were down 3-1 and won 3 straight games to win it out. The game Green was suspended for is irrelevant. He was back in the series for games 6 and 7. They got beat by double digits in game 6 and in Game 7 they lost at home.

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

I agree with that in terms of they both got one, so it evens out.

I do think though GSW would've won 2016 even with wear and tear if it hadn't been for Game 5 suspension. For Game 5, they were in Oracle with the chance to clinch it. Injuries to Bogut and Iggy may not have happened if not for being overextended because of Draymond Green's absence.

Things happen in sports though; injuries happen, bad calls happen.

We don't know if they would have beaten Cleveland in game 5 even if draymond played.

[steady]

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

I agree with that in terms of they both got one, so it evens out.

I do think though GSW would've won 2016 even with wear and tear if it hadn't been for Game 5 suspension. For Game 5, they were in Oracle with the chance to clinch it. Injuries to Bogut and Iggy may not have happened if not for being overextended because of Draymond Green's absence.

Things happen in sports though; injuries happen, bad calls happen.

We don't know if they would have beaten Cleveland in game 5 even if draymond played.

That's very true. But I really wish we could've seen THAT game.

[MrDollarBills]

This is the worst NBA finals I've ever seen. Even when we got swept by the Lakers in 2002 at least we put up a fight, i only think we got blown out of one game in a series where we were clearly outmatched playing against Shaq who was god tier. these guys have let go of the rope. embarrassing, the league needs to fix this ****. Either switch the playoff format which will seed the teams 1-16 by record or lock the players out during the next cba negotiation and switch to a hard cap. this is seriously trash.

and then people will bitch when Lebron leaves. Who can blame him? he's 33 years old and is still in top level condition. why waste what's left of your prime especially when you have players who are scared of competition so they run to play for the teams that beat them. I have no respect for Kevin Durant as a competitor. Great basketball player for sure, and I respect his wish to play where ever he wants, but i cannot respect him on the level of other great players. Even when Lebron, Wade and Bosh teamed up, they did that to counteract Pierce/Allen/KG. That was in the spirit of competition. Joining up with the guys who beat you is not about competition, its taking the easy way out.

[Rich Rane]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

[MrDollarBills]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

But this would never happen here. and you know it

[Rich Rane]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

But this would never happen here. and you know it

I'm sure long suffering Warriors fans had the same state of mind before drafting Curry. Sometimes all the stars align for a team to get to that point. I'm not saying the same exact thing will or even could happen here, but it's not the worst thing to have hope things could get a lot better than they've been here.

[MrDollarBills]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

But this would never happen here. and you know it

I'm sure long suffering Warriors fans had the same state of mind before drafting Curry. Sometimes all the stars align for a team to get to that point. I'm not saying the same exact thing will or even could happen here, but it's not the worst thing to have hope things could get a lot better than they've been here.

I believe that things will change. I just don't think that it will happen in the same manner.

[Paradise]

This is the worst NBA finals I've ever seen. Even when we got swept by the Lakers in 2002 at least we put up a fight, i only think we got blown out of one game in a series where we were clearly outmatched playing against Shaq who was god tier. these guys have let go of the rope. embarrassing, the league needs to fix this ****. Either switch the playoff format which will seed the teams 1-16 by record or lock the players out during the next cba negotiation and switch to a hard cap. this is seriously trash.

and then people will bitch when Lebron leaves. Who can blame him? he's 33 years old and is still in top level condition. why waste what's left of your prime especially when you have players who are scared of competition so they run to play for the teams that beat them. I have no respect for Kevin Durant as a competitor. Great basketball player for sure, and I respect his wish to play where ever he wants, but i cannot respect him on the level of other great players. Even when Lebron, Wade and Bosh teamed up, they did that to counteract Pierce/Allen/KG. That was in the spirit of competition. Joining up with the guys who beat you is not about competition, its taking the easy way out.

Trying to change the rules is the easy way out and a terrible look. Like rich said, if our franchise ends up doing something similar we would love every single run. Every single meaningless win.

Curry - Drafted
Klay - Drafted
Drayond - Drafted
Bell - Drafted
Barnes - Drafted
Lee - Traded
Bogut - Traded

KD, Iggy, Livingston were their only free agent signings. They are likely to get another quality rookie and their G-League team developed Quinn Cook into a Livingston replacement.

You are basically asking to change the very model most rebuilding teams dream of. The fact is people are scared to admit the Warriors FO are just that good and the torch of winning, drafting well and taking paycuts is being passed from the Spurs to the Warriors. The difference is the Warriors actually have a desirable city for FAs. The Lakers, Hawks and other franchises are directly hiring folks to rebuild their organizations from the Warriors tree....which comes from the Spurs tree.

How can you seriously hate that when the alternative would've been KD in Boston with Tatum, Brown?

[Vae Victus]

2015 Cavs had a real coach in Blatt, who even while missing Kyrie and Love were able to scratch 2 wins.

Cavs after that basically had no system under Lue, except to play xTreme Lebronball. Which somehow miraculously worked in 2016 due to a myriad of reasons. Lue had been coasting off that lucky chip ever since. Kinda reminds me of Doc Rivers...

Lebron will bolt to greener pastures and leave CLE a desolate wasteland. However, if i were a CLE fan i'd still be happy. They finally got a chip! Sure they'll suck again, but its cool, just keep sending Gilbert's son and they'll be pulling #1 overall picks out of their ass again!

[MrDollarBills]

This is the worst NBA finals I've ever seen. Even when we got swept by the Lakers in 2002 at least we put up a fight, i only think we got blown out of one game in a series where we were clearly outmatched playing against Shaq who was god tier. these guys have let go of the rope. embarrassing, the league needs to fix this ****. Either switch the playoff format which will seed the teams 1-16 by record or lock the players out during the next cba negotiation and switch to a hard cap. this is seriously trash.

and then people will bitch when Lebron leaves. Who can blame him? he's 33 years old and is still in top level condition. why waste what's left of your prime especially when you have players who are scared of competition so they run to play for the teams that beat them. I have no respect for Kevin Durant as a competitor. Great basketball player for sure, and I respect his wish to play where ever he wants, but i cannot respect him on the level of other great players. Even when Lebron, Wade and Bosh teamed up, they did that to counteract Pierce/Allen/KG. That was in the spirit of competition. Joining up with the guys who beat you is not about competition, its taking the easy way out.

Trying to change the rules is the easy way out and a terrible look. Like rich said, if our franchise ends up doing something similar we would love every single run. Every single meaningless win.

Curry - Drafted
Klay - Drafted
Drayond - Drafted
Bell - Drafted
Barnes - Drafted
Lee - Traded
Bogut - Traded

KD, Iggy, Livingston were their only free agent signings. They are likely to get another quality rookie and their G-League team developed Quinn Cook into a Livingston replacement.

You are basically asking to change the very model most rebuilding teams dream of. The fact is people are scared to admit the Warriors FO are just that good and the torch of winning, drafting well and taking paycuts is being passed from the Spurs to the Warriors. The difference is the Warriors actually have a desirable city for FAs. The Lakers, Hawks and other franchises are directly hiring folks to rebuild their organizations from the Warriors tree....which comes from the Spurs tree.

How can you seriously hate that when the alternative would've been KD in Boston with Tatum, Brown?

I'm not hating on the Warriors drafting good players, but going to a team that was already stacked that beat you the season before is Durant taking the easy way out. If Lebron did that **** people would be ready to nail him to a cross.

If KD went to Boston at least that would be better than going to a team that was already favored to win anyway, and no one knew at that time that Tatum and Brown would make the leaps that they did this year.

Changing the rules so that there is some actual parity in the NBA is a bad thing? wow, i guess you must love the fact that we'll forever be stuck in the toilet while the same 2-3 teams only have a chance every year. that must be exciting to you, but to me that's boring as **** dude.

If this is the case then yeah i hope the Nets do tank for the next ten years. why even bother

[MrDollarBills]

2015 Cavs had a real coach in Blatt, who even while missing Kyrie and Love were able to scratch 2 wins.

Cavs after that basically had no system under Lue, except to play xTreme Lebronball. Which somehow miraculously worked in 2016 due to a myriad of reasons. Lue had been coasting off that lucky chip ever since. Kinda reminds me of Doc Rivers...

Lebron will bolt to greener pastures and leave CLE a desolate wasteland. However, if i were a CLE fan i'd still be happy. They finally got a chip! Sure they'll suck again, but its cool, just keep sending Gilbert's son and they'll be pulling #1 overall picks out of their ass again!

That team is going to be a mess next season with some really bloated contracts on their books. at least they have our pick to show for it though

[Prokorov]

I agree there were some missed calls re DGreen earlier in that playoffs; and that he had established a rep for bad behavior. That was on him. This was largely what was used to justify the decision, and to support the conclusion of "intentional" contact at the time, and I think the majority of people would agree with you that it was fair The karma came back to bite him.

I just hate whenever the 2016 Championship is discussed having an asterisk in my mind. Were the Cavs the real champions that year. Could they have really defeated the historically great Warriors that year, even with a hurt Curry, without the help of the League's intervention? Was that extreme action of benching the best player for one team for an entire game really justified by the incident that occurred?

To me whenever LeBron tries to say the Cavs could beat the Warriors except for Durant being there, I think, are we forgetting how good the Warriors were that year -- the historic regular season year. Without Durant. I think twenty years from now when people look back on this era of NBA, that call by League will be seen as a mistake. And one that ended up seriously hurting the League because it led to Durant going to Warriors

The Cavs were the real champions. They were down 3-1 and won 3 straight games to win it out. The game Green was suspended for is irrelevant. He was back in the series for games 6 and 7. They got beat by double digits in game 6 and in Game 7 they lost at home.

You're forgetting that the injuries to Bogut (Game 5 - knee impaction) and Iggy (Game 6 - stiff back) dramatically impacted GSW's defense.

Bogut only averaged 12+ minutes for GSW in that series, but his minutes were important enough to warrant him starting every game. Iggy's impact (guarding LBJ) speaks for itself. For the last two games of the series, GSW lost their best interior defender and starting center, and their best LBJ defender was severely hampered.

I've come to believe that CLE should've won 2015 if they were completely healthy and GSW should've won 2016 if completely healthy and had no suspensions. Since they both got one, it evens out.

i dont know, i mean, cleveland didnt have love in 2016 either, id say thats bigger then bogut and a beat up iggy.

[Prokorov]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

if we were the warriors id cheer us on too... id also bash durant every second of every game for ruining the prettiest offense of all time and being an akward pansy

[shakendfries]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

if we were the warriors id cheer us on too... id also bash durant every second of every game for ruining the prettiest offense of all time and being an akward pansy

[Rich Rane]

Say what you will, but if KD and those guys were wearing Nets jerseys, I sure as hell would be cheering for them. This team hasn't seen a ring since the ABA and Golden State is in the middle of enjoying some amazing seasons after comparable decades of awfulness.

if we were the warriors id cheer us on too... id also bash durant every second of every game for ruining the prettiest offense of all time and being an akward pansy

A pair of titles and a pair Finals MVPs most likely make Warriors fans not care. I'm sure it would be the same here.

[Rich Rane]

This is the worst NBA finals I've ever seen. Even when we got swept by the Lakers in 2002 at least we put up a fight, i only think we got blown out of one game in a series where we were clearly outmatched playing against Shaq who was god tier. these guys have let go of the rope. embarrassing, the league needs to fix this ****. Either switch the playoff format which will seed the teams 1-16 by record or lock the players out during the next cba negotiation and switch to a hard cap. this is seriously trash.

and then people will bitch when Lebron leaves. Who can blame him? he's 33 years old and is still in top level condition. why waste what's left of your prime especially when you have players who are scared of competition so they run to play for the teams that beat them. I have no respect for Kevin Durant as a competitor. Great basketball player for sure, and I respect his wish to play where ever he wants, but i cannot respect him on the level of other great players. Even when Lebron, Wade and Bosh teamed up, they did that to counteract Pierce/Allen/KG. That was in the spirit of competition. Joining up with the guys who beat you is not about competition, its taking the easy way out.

Trying to change the rules is the easy way out and a terrible look. Like rich said, if our franchise ends up doing something similar we would love every single run. Every single meaningless win.

Curry - Drafted
Klay - Drafted
Drayond - Drafted
Bell - Drafted
Barnes - Drafted
Lee - Traded
Bogut - Traded

KD, Iggy, Livingston were their only free agent signings. They are likely to get another quality rookie and their G-League team developed Quinn Cook into a Livingston replacement.

You are basically asking to change the very model most rebuilding teams dream of. The fact is people are scared to admit the Warriors FO are just that good and the torch of winning, drafting well and taking paycuts is being passed from the Spurs to the Warriors. The difference is the Warriors actually have a desirable city for FAs. The Lakers, Hawks and other franchises are directly hiring folks to rebuild their organizations from the Warriors tree....which comes from the Spurs tree.

How can you seriously hate that when the alternative would've been KD in Boston with Tatum, Brown?

I'm not hating on the Warriors drafting good players, but going to a team that was already stacked that beat you the season before is Durant taking the easy way out. If Lebron did that **** people would be ready to nail him to a cross.

If KD went to Boston at least that would be better than going to a team that was already favored to win anyway, and no one knew at that time that Tatum and Brown would make the leaps that they did this year.

Changing the rules so that there is some actual parity in the NBA is a bad thing? wow, i guess you must love the fact that we'll forever be stuck in the toilet while the same 2-3 teams only have a chance every year. that must be exciting to you, but to me that's boring as **** dude.

If this is the case then yeah i hope the Nets do tank for the next ten years. why even bother

I agree that it's boring, but in an age where every sports league's TV ratings are going down (or even TV ratings in general), somehow the NBA's is either holding steady or rising. To the front office, things can't be much better. Casuals simply love what they're seeing.

[MrDollarBills]

yeah that's just it, casuals love it. meanwhile, actual fans of teams are deluding themselves into thinking their team will one day win a title when in reality their team's best player will probably jump ship after his first big contract to play on an already loaded team.