NBA 2016-2017 Season

[Tyrone]

A little earlier than last year, but with NBA 2K17 released early on Friday (officially out today), I've got basketball on the mind.

Off-season news:

- Kevin Durant joined Golden State, making their starting line-up more dangerous, but hurting their bench depth.

- Russell Westbrook re-upped with OKC, now the franchise player for the Thunder. As well, Serge Ibaka was traded away to Orlando for Victor Oladipo, a young player on the rise.

- Tim Duncan and Amar'e Stoudemire are now retired.

- Dwyane Wade joined the Chicago Bulls, as did Rajon Rondo.

- Everyone got paid crazy money in Free Agency.

- O.J. Mayo was dismissed from the league for violating the drug policy, but will be eligible for reinstatement in two years.

- Most recently Giannis Antetokounmpo re-upped with Milwaukee on a 4-year, $100 M deal while JR Smith and Cleveland are still in limbo on contract negotiations.

[JasonM]

Good job by Milwaukee to lock down Greek Freak quick and early. 25M looks like a craptonne, but the cap is gonna increase again next season so it'll probably be a great deal. And the past three seasons have only been improvements for Giannis, and this season he could easily become a double double player who can also add ~5 assists per game. He's becoming the Greek Lebron James.

I feel Dallas has done good business, honestly.

- Losing Chandler Parsons to Memphis, which is painful seeing how much we gave up to get him in the first place. But on the other hand he wasn't improving either.
- Got Bogut for practically nothing, and I feel he can add a lot to the team with his passing and pretty good rim defending. Especially if Mejri continues to show glimpses off the bench.
- Got Acy, who is a 'who?' kind of guy, but he's been decent wherever he went. And will hopefully be a solid guy off the bench when Dirk or Powell isn't playing.
- Barnes is the big get for the Mavs, at 23.5 a year he's expensive but hopefully he'll become a better player with a bigger role, without Curry/Klay doing all the offensive lifting.
- Extremely delighted that we managed to retain Deron Williams for next season, he was better than expected last season and really added clutch the times Dirk couldn't wasn't able to. He looked healthy and motivated, and I think he has the chance to be just as good as last season if he doesn't suffer bad injuries.
- We also still got Wes Matthews, and last season he's shown that he's still as healthy as he's ever been regardless of the surgery he had before last season. And hopefully with a full training camp he'll be able to find his groove again and return to Blazers ability.
- Also feel that Justin Anderson and Dwight Powell are set for a leap in ability. Simba looked great when Parsons was out, and really upped his game when it mattered. Powell has been a solid guy for a few years now, and I feel there's more to the guy than just a depth player.
- Finally I think Jameel Warney might be a sleeper after being undrafted.

All in all, we're not going to win the title, or are we going to make it to the finals. But I feel any Carlisle team that has Dirk and Deron can get somewhere as long as the injury bug doesn't strike...

The starting five also looks pretty great.
PG: D-Will
SG: Wes Matthews
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Andrew Bogut

With guys like D. Harris, Simba, Powell, and JJ Barea coming off the bench.

[Quom]

I'll be happily surprised if Mavs make the playoffs this year with their current roster. To me there is just too much risk of injury and too little guaranteed production. I don't really know how that starting 5 looks in comparison to a lot of teams in the West. Hell I don't know that I'd take it over our starting 5 and we were one of the worst teams last season. 

I'm sort of sick of the top teams. I'm kind of hoping OKC go HAM since they could potentially be super exciting, same with Milwaukee.

After all the shit they've done I can't decide if I want Philly to do super well to vindicate Hinkie or to do super crap to spite the team and the process in the first place. 

I'm kind of worried about the T'Wolves. Rubio had a really shitty Olympics and Dunn is right there to take his spot. I'm kind of secretly hoping Dunn is used as a stick for LaVine more than as a replacement for Rubio; 'if you don't play defence I'll stick Dunn in with Rubio to actually stop the other team scoring'. I dunno, it should be exciting times. I'm just not sure how a hard arsed coach known for favouring veterans is going to do when three of our starting 5 are 21 or under. Our 'veteran presence' if Garnett retires is a 25 year old Rubio or role-players. It certainly didn't work well last season although am sure Thibs is a better coach than Mitchell. Plus if everything about Thibs is true and he does demand 110% in practice and games then injuries could mount up. There has been lots of talk that all of our young guys are legit gym rats constantly working out.

[Plubby]

THE KNICKS FUCKIN' RULE~!

[Quom]

25 minutes ago, Plubby said:

THE KNICKS FUCKIN' RULE~!

At trading for rapists?

[Plubby]

Who did we trade for? :S

[thatshortguy]

Derrick Rose ish aside, I'll be amazed if the Knicks go the full year without a fistfight.  My money's on Melo kneecapping Rose.

[VerbalPuke]

The Pistons didn't do anything crazy but I feel much better about our bench depth. It will be cool to see us start the year with Tobias Harris as we improved dramatically after trading for him.

Stanley Johnsons development will be important, hopefully he can become a solid wing, he is still young.

Can Drummond improve his free throws? He fucking better. 

And...we got Stan "Form a Fucking Wall" Van Gundy. So yeah, I think we have top four in the East capability.

[thatshortguy]

Until Stan out-coaches himself, the Pistons may have the sneakiest-good bench in the league.  Batch of guys nobody's heard of (save Hillard/Smith) but gets stuff done.

[VerbalPuke]

Yeah, if I had one gripe about the Ish Smith signing is that he is a similar player to Reggie Jackson. I'm hoping Ellenson shows something this year also, a lot of fans were thrilled he fell to us.

[Quom]

Jesus, Garnett is after a buy out. On one hand I'm kind of meh because I was getting sick of the whole 'if he plays he has to start because he has the longest streak of starting every game he plays'. At the same time him trying to force his way out because of broken promises and the way Mitchell was fired makes us look like trash when we have a lot of young guys about to need extensions. 

It will be am especially big kick in the balls if he doesn't retire after the buy-out. Like either way this is making us look bad, but that would really suck since him coming home was such a great story.

[JasonM]

At this point I truly don't care for Garnett at all. His homecoming was nice and all, but he's the epitome of a veteran who neither has the health or 'fucks given' to play in the NBA anymore. And his 19 year starting streak is cute and all, but honestly why even bother. If he wants to suit up and play off the bench, let him, if he doesn't, then get rid of him and either let him find another team stupid enough to play along with the charade, or simply have him retire with his streak intact.

At 39 he's become a complete liability, and with roster spots always a premium, his spot is better reserved for a guy that brings it.

And that wasn't even mentioning the fact he's the third best paid player on the Wolves roster at 8 friggin million.

[thatshortguy]

I'd argue that Garnett and Elton Brand have a lot in common.  They'd be fine player-coaches that just take up the end of the bench and help teach the younger players.  No reason for Garnett to be on the court, but someone will likely try to nab him on a veteran minimum because of his name.

Oh lawdy, he's probably going to Cleveland...

[Tyrone]

Khris Middleton tore his hamstring and will be out for six months. Big loss for the Bucks.

In other news, the Lakers signed Metta World Peace and Thomas Robinson to 1-year deals. Really like the addition of Robinson, but with Randle, Mozgov, Nance, Black, Jianlian, etc. there are way too many bigs on the squad.

[Quom]

8 hours ago, Jasonmufc said:

At this point I truly don't care for Garnett at all. His homecoming was nice and all, but he's the epitome of a veteran who neither has the health or 'fucks given' to play in the NBA anymore. And his 19 year starting streak is cute and all, but honestly why even bother. If he wants to suit up and play off the bench, let him, if he doesn't, then get rid of him and either let him find another team stupid enough to play along with the charade, or simply have him retire with his streak intact.

At 39 he's become a complete liability, and with roster spots always a premium, his spot is better reserved for a guy that brings it.

And that wasn't even mentioning the fact he's the third best paid player on the Wolves roster at 8 friggin million.

Garnett is still a great defender and was easily our best big defender. We were -2.1 points a game offensively with him on the court but -12.4 for the other team's offence and since he was starting it wasn't like he was keeping scrubs from scoring (nor was it KAT carrying him, it was more him covering KAT's mistakes). He's still one of the best P&R and help defenders in the league which is mind boggling given his age.

Having said that, I agree with you. Especially when we've added Cole Aldrich and Jordan Hill. It feels like we have 20 bigs at the end of the bench.

[Toe]

http://www.tsn.ca/bosh-fails-physical-with-heat-1.572317

This sucks - I really like Bosh. He came across as a genuinely nice person when in Toronto. I hope this isn't how his career ends, but you have to be incredibly careful when dealing with blood clots.

[Quom]

Depressing off-season. No more Kobe/Duncan/Garnett and now Bosh is seeming unlikely to play again. Has there ever been this many HoF players retiring in the same off-season?  

[thatshortguy]

Garnett is retiring.

[Quom]

I said that like an hour ago :/

[gunnar hendershow]

What a ridiculously loaded HoF class it's going to be.