2019-20 NBA Season Discussion

[Doctor MJ]

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The Heat's success with Robinson is something I keep coming back to when I think about this year. From the SSOL Suns on to me the essential question has been:

So how good at shooting can the NBA become if they just really look out for shooting prospects and then train them really well?

For Robinson to come not simply "out of nowhere" but from objectively ineffective in the game shooting the 3 in '18-19 to what he did in '19-20 really paints a picture of how the miracle can be brought about. It wasn't about Robinson being an average body with an impossibly good 3, it was about practice making perfect.

Now, we'll see how Robinson holds up in the playoffs and in upcoming seasons as his story is obviously far from written, but as we stand here right now, he's one of the big non-superstar stories of the season.

Also, really feeling him for MIP in a year full of really strong candidates.

[ardee]

The meals they're serving these guys look like bodybuilding prep meals I saw Thybulle's video... dry chicken (I'm a vegetarian but even I can tell how unappetizing that is) and pasta with no sauce is gonna get very old for 3 months

[PistolPeteJR]

The meals they're serving these guys look like bodybuilding prep meals I saw Thybulle's video... dry chicken (I'm a vegetarian but even I can tell how unappetizing that is) and pasta with no sauce is gonna get very old for 3 months

The strong willed ones I think will deal with it the further they get into the playoffs.

The ones who get eliminated won’t have to deal with the issue lol.

[bondom34]

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/photo/1

[eminence]

About 15 minutes from some pre-season games, I'm glad to have it back. Been following the Jazz through it, bummed about Bojan's injury, but hopeful that maybe one of the young guys can come in and show something, I know they've excited me in the g-league (Tucker and Brantley in particular).

[eminence]

I'm liking the amount of pumped in background noise so far to balance with court noise/announcing. How do others like the general vibe?

[Clyde Frazier]

I'm liking the amount of pumped in background noise so far to balance with court noise/announcing. How do others like the general vibe?

i'm irrationally excited to watch glorified summer league games, that's for sure. the setup isn't bad. agreed the arena sounds make it feel familiar and not like an empty space. didn't realize they were bringing PA announcers, that helps a lot too. the graphics changing on those screens is distracting. this announcer basically doing radio PBP is distracting, but I guess that's all they could get for now. would've been nice to at least have a color guy with him to tone it down.

pleasant surprise to see kawhi and george playing together to start. sloppy play all around but not surprising. so far so good.

[eminence]

I'm liking the amount of pumped in background noise so far to balance with court noise/announcing. How do others like the general vibe?

i'm irrationally excited to watch glorified summer league games, that's for sure. the setup isn't bad. agreed the arena sounds make it feel familiar and not like an empty space. didn't realize they were bringing PA announcers, that helps a lot too. the graphics changing on those screens is distracting. this announcer basically doing radio PBP is distracting, but I guess that's all they could get for now. would've been nice to at least have a color guy with him to tone it down.

pleasant surprise to see kawhi and george playing together to start. sloppy play all around but not surprising. so far so good.

I think for these scrims the guy is doing the radio PBP and they're just putting it over the TV broadcast too.

[Clyde Frazier]

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The NBA is back!

[RCM88x]

I wish they would try to add some sound dampening to the arena. From the highlights I watched the shoe squeaking sound was super loud and got of annoying pretty early on. Maybe it's just something to get used to.

[CKRT]

yeah the crowd noise is a hard problem to solve. my initial thought was they could pump in audio from live fans online but without societal pressure of IRL consequences it would turn into a call of duty lobby fast lol

[HeartBreakKid]

I wish they would try to add some sound dampening to the arena. From the highlights I watched the shoe squeaking sound was super loud and got of annoying pretty early on. Maybe it's just something to get used to.

isnt this similar to summer league stuff?

[GSP]

I wish the Jazz werent so far ahead in rankings. Blazers/Pelicans/Grizzlies are much more interesting teams with Bogie out. Utah is 1st round fodder this year

[limbo]

All of those teams are 1st round fodder if we're being honest. None of them have a chance against the Lakers/Clippers, though i'd definitely be more interested in seeing how a healthy Portland team looks rather than Utah missing a 20 ppg scorer... Ultimately, the 1st round matchups will still have some combo of OKC/Dallas/Denver/Houston, which should be pretty exciting.

[MyUniBroDavis]

All of those teams are 1st round fodder if we're being honest. None of them have a chance against the Lakers/Clippers, though i'd definitely be more interested in seeing how a healthy Portland team looks rather than Utah missing a 20 ppg scorer... Ultimately, the 1st round matchups will still have some combo of OKC/Dallas/Denver/Houston, which should be pretty exciting.

I think a pelicans laker matchup is the dream one lol, pelicans prolly lose in 4 or 5 but the storyline would be wild

Unless zions on a 5 minute restriction

[limbo]

The Pelicans are probably the worst among all the remaining teams in the West, lol, especially if Zion plays 15-20 min. Regardless, they're far too behind to make it anyway.

[MyUniBroDavis]

The Pelicans are probably the worst among all the remaining teams in the West, lol, especially if Zion plays 15-20 min. Regardless, they're far too behind to make it anyway.

I mean i never have faith in them but as it stands they have by far the best shot to make it lol. They were 22-15 after that losing streak, had the easiest upcoming schedule compared to everyone else in the race by far, and they have the same losses as portland do right now. 9th seed gets a play in.

Of the 8 remaining games, heres who everyones playing

The blazers play
Mem/Bos/Hou/Den/Lac/76ers/Dal/Bkn
The kings play
Spurs/Mavs/Orl/Nop/Bkn/Hou/Nop/Lal
The spurs play
Kings/Mem/76ers/Den/Uta/Nop/Hou/Uta
Memphis play
Por/Sas/Nop/Uta/Okc/Tor/Bos/Mlk

Meanwhile the pelicans play
Lac/Mem/Sac/Was/Sas/Sac/Orl

Of the 7 remaining games, the pelicans play 1 upper echelon playoff team and everyone else are the guys fighting for a spot (the worst teams in the bubble) they also have the tiebreaker against portland

Everyone else's schedule is stupid brutal in comparison, and since theyre fighting for 9th basically. Blazers dont really have a shot, their schedule is actually stupid, and they dont own the tiebreaker against the kings either (they do against the spurs) and in general itll just be ridiculously hard for them to get it.

The spurs prolly end up making it because the spurs always make it but rhe pelicans technically have the best shot. Theyre half a game back, and 6/7 of their games are against those fighting for a playoff spot.

Nor only that but post zion pelicans were probably the best out of the teams fighting for a spot. They pretty much only lost close games to playoff teams (outside of a loss to minessotta by 5) after his minutes restriction was lifted (Okc, houstan, bucks, lakersx2, dallas) and outside of the bucks all of these games were by single digits. Among their wins in this stretch were against boston, a 29 point win against memphis, 21 and 13 point wins against portland, indiana, and miami. Even the recent loss against utah, zion was on a pretty severe minutes restriction, and his plus minus only sucked because the rebounding was hella weird when he was on the floor (as in every shot bounced back to a utah player) but their offense which stagnated at the end when he wasnt there was pretty cohesive with him.

I dont really see how they are the worst when for the most part they only had single digit losses to mostly strong playoff teams (which for at least 3-4 of the games they choked) and have by far the easiest schedule going forward

[Mos_Heat]

Nurkic looks incredible for a guy who missed 17 months.

[limbo]

This will show how much i've paid attention to the NBA in the last couple of months... but what are the Suns doing in the bubble? Might as well put the Warriors in too...

[MisterHibachi]

Harden looks scary good.