2006/07 NBA Thread

[JStarr]

Halloween night is an appropriate night for the NBA season to open, because the game gets pretty scary if you're a fan of the fundamentals. But if you like seeing people getting dunked on, then you've got to be a little bit excited.

This year, I think we might see a couple of perennial weaklings flexing a little muscle.

Atlantic: It's still the Nets' division to win, and they'll still have a shitty record for a division winner. Kidd's tires are running low on tread, and Carter seems to only crank it into high gear when his contract's set to expire. The Raptors could be decent if the United Nations approach works. Two Spaniards, an Italian, two Slovenians, and a Senegalese should make for some linguistic nightmares for the coaches, and it's time to drink heavily if the guys can't play. The Sixers need Andre Iguodala to become Joe Dumars to Iverson's Isiah Thomas, but it ain't real likely. The Celtics need somebody better than Sebastian Telfair to get Paul Pierce the ball. The Knicks, well, they still just suck.

Southeast: This one, I think will get tight this year. The Heat will likely start out slow, pacing the old guys for the late season and trying to protect Wade. If the Wizards can play defense, they'll challenge. I'm a huge Arenas fan, even if he does think cops will bow to a basketball player. (Great player, but a bit of a dumb shit.) Orlando's got Howard and Nelson, and if J.J. Redick can shoot from NBA range, they might slip into the 8 seed. Charlotte's got The Mustache, and paired with Felton, Okafor, and May, that's a nice-looking group. Playoffs...in 2009. Atlanta...they're praying for Greg Oden.

Central: All five teams could make the playoffs again, and I'm calling it now: Bulls take home-court advantage. Ben Wallace's experience and toughness vastly improve over Tyson Chandler, and guys like Gordon, Nocioni, Hinrich, and Deng make for a flexible-as-hell team. If Thabo Sefolosha can defend guys like Arenas, Hamilton, and Wade, we might see Chicago in the Finals. Detroit's still gonna be strong, but they lost a lot of size and strength when Ben walked. Nazr Mohammed? No thanks. Cleveland won't win a title with Eric Snow at the point. Either put the entire offense into LeBron's hands (which it may as well be anyway) or find a younger, quicker replacement for Snow. I love my Pacers, but dammit, can somebody keep these guys out of the strip bars? Oh, and find them a PG who can play a whole season? And the Bucks finally stopped wasting one of my favorite players, Michael Redd. They've got an interesting two-headed monster at PG with Blake and Williams, but they might slump out of contention in the first two months without Bogut.

CONFERENCE FINALS: Bulls over Pistons in 7.

Southwest: Dallas and San Antonio will keep owning this division until Houston says otherwise...or until Tim and Dirk both have their legs torn off. The Spurs are still two-deep at every position, but if Francisco Elson can't produce more than what Nesterovic and Mohammed did, Dallas will still be able to outgun them. Houston did well by adding Bonzi Wells and Shane Battier as insurance for T-Mac, but they still need outside shooting. Casey Jacobsen and Steve Novak (Matt Bullard v.2?) are gonna be important. New Orleans adding Chandler, Stojakovic, and Bobby Jackson to Chris Paul might get them into the playoffs...or Peja might be creaky, Chandler might get rich and lazy, and Jackson might have to play 40 minutes with Paul in street clothes. Memphis - Pau Gasol = 48 minutes of suck, unless Rudy Gay's as good as everyone at the draft seemed to think he was.

Northwest: This is the Atlantic of the West, except this division doesn't have ANY teams that stand head-and-shoulders above. Minnesota gets the edge for me, just because of KG. Or, they may miss the playoffs if Blount and Davis don't provide some reasons why the Szczerbiak trade was a good idea. The Jazz have an absolutely awesome frontcourt w/ AK, Boozer, Harpring, and Okur, but hopefully Ronnie Brewer can improve on the blandness that is Gordan Giricek. Denver's still got a solid starting five, especially if J.R. Smith comes to play, but they could really use a bench outside of Earl Boykins. If Nene gets hurt again, no playoffs. Seattle still has Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis to score loads of points, and they have a good PG in Ridnour to get them the ball. Now, they have to try not to piss Luke off by giving his minutes to Earl Watson. Portland finally did the wise thing and blew up that shithole of a roster, but they've still got some pouters in Randolph and Miles. They're waaaaaaaaaaaay behind in this division unless those two come to actually work and get great help from Brandon Roy and Jamaal Magloire.

Pacific: The Clippers are gonna win this division. Write it down. Unless Elton Brand runs out of gas, that is. Even then, there's talent up top AND depth on the bench for once. Taking Tim Thomas away from the Suns might be the move that takes them over the top, and I say that even though I hate Tim Thomas. The Suns may be screwed if Amare doesn't get back to his dominant ways. Otherwise, all the scoring load falls on Marion, Nash and Diaw. Those three will get you to May, but maybe not June. The Lakers still need another scorer good enough to make Kobe think that passing the ball might be a good idea once in a while. The Kings still need one more bruiser inside, especially since Brad Miller keeps drifting outside. If they got a banger like Chris Wilcox from Seattle, they'd be a dark horse contender IMO. And the Warriors still shouldn't be as bad as they are, but pinning too much of their hopes on the injury-prone (Baron Davis) and the overrated (Done-leavy) isn't gonna get them anywhere. How long before J-Rich demands out?

CONFERENCE FINALS: Mavs over Clippers in six.

NBA FINALS: Mavs over Bulls in six.

And finally, I've got a Yahoo league started if anybody wants a run fantasy-wise. The league is called the Basketball Jones League, and the draft is on Oct. 30th, 7:30 pm EST. Anyone's welcome to join, as long as you think you'll be an active participant.

Game on!

[Mofoticon]

The Bulls are immensely overrated, they will be great on D, but they have no go to scorer and will be finish 3rd in the Central, behind Cleveland and Detroit.

[Trey]

Being a Bulls fan, I think that Deng will emerge this year enough to help carry the scoring load with Gordon, Hinrich, and Nocioni.

[alldaws1]

Season starts on Five (UK) tonight, Bulls v Heat.

I haven't been following the off-season as much as I'd have liked to, so can anyone update me on the big news/transactions that have happened? All I know really is Ben Wallace to Chicago.

[VerbalPuke]

I also believe the Bulls will be a very good team this year, not that they weren't before. I could see them getting to the conference finals but falling to Detroit or Miami this year.

I think I'd give the Bulls another year before calling them a bonafide contender. I believe that some of their players are lacking playoff experience (and they need more than a few first round exits), but this could be the year they gain it, much in the same way the Pistons did the year before they went all the way.

The east is looking much stronger this year, so it should be interesting to see how the playoffs shape up. Even Milwaukee should be improved with the addition of Charlie Villanueva (and what a steal that trade was).

Being a Pistons fan, I think we'll still be a very good team. Nazr Mohammed obviously isn't Ben Wallace, and everybody knows that. However, he can give us more offense than Ben, which means we wont essentially be playing 5 on 4 on the offensive end. We'll obviously have a drop off on defense, but we still have two players that are second team all-defense in Prince and Billups. Hamilton, Rasheed, McDyess, Delfino, and especially Lindsey Hunter are all solid defenders. I expect us to win around 50-55 games, and who knows what'll happen in the playoffs.

One team I'm very interested in this year are the New Orleans Hornets. Chris Paul and David West emerged as two great young talents. With the additions of Peja Stojakovic, Tyson Chandler, and Bobby Jackson, they could be a very competitive team. Plus they have Desmond Mason who can give you 13-15 points a night.

[JStarr]

--Peja Stojakovic went to the Hornets

--Shane Battier got traded to Houston

--Bonzi Wells signed with Houston

--Tim Thomas to the Clippers

--Tyson Chandler to the Hornets

--T.J. Ford from Milwaukee to Toronto for Charlie Villanueva

--And Portland blew up most of the damn team

Other than that, not much.

[VerbalPuke]

A few more just to flesh out jstarr's list a bit...

PJ Brown to the Bulls (for Tyson Chandler)

JR Smith to the Bulls (also for Tyson Chandler)

JR Smith to the Nuggets (Not sure what the Bulls got for him)

Flip Murray to Detroit

Maurice Evans to the Lakers

Stromile Swift back to Memphis (Part of the Battier deal)

Jalen Rose's contract was recently bought out by the Knicks. He is looking for a new team.

[Green Demon]

I am not going to say that the Bulls arent good cause they most definatly are I just dont see how they could get to the finals this year, the thing that the lacked last season was a offensive presence down low and that is no different this year. It is not question that B. Wallace is far better then Chandler on D but there really isnt that much of a difference on O side of the ball. I am not doubting that they will go to the playoffs and all that stuff but I dont see them making it to the finals this year.

Eric Snow definatly isnt anywhere near the best PG in the league but he gets the job done on D and he can pass and doesnt turn over much which is all the really need. The younger quicker PG that could eventually take Snows place could be a draft pick we had this year in Daniel Gibson, he wont be starting or anything this year but he could be the future PG of this team. The Cavs bench isnt the deepest in the league but they got some good players coming off the bench this year in Vareajo, Marshall and Wesley and some toughness in Pollard as long as he stays healthy. I think some people forget that the Cavs still won 50 games last season without thier starting SG in Larry Hughes for more then half the season and the other guys they recently aquired D. Jones, and Donyell Marshall had some of thier worst season in recent memory. So you have to figure that even if Hughes plays 10 or more games and one of the D plays closer to thier normal level, the team will atleast win what they did last year and even improve a few games with the constant growth of Lebron.

I must say that regardless of my opinions of the teams I am really looking forward to this season espesiallly to see how the East ends up in the end and more specifially the Central.

[Lowerdeck]

Thank God the Nets are in a shitty division. At least we have some sort of bench for once.

[JStarr]

Miami sort of looked hung over after getting the rings last night, eh? 42 points kinda qualifies as an ass-whipping.

On a related note, did anybody see those damn rings? Things were the size of a small puppy or something.

[ACCBiggz]

Shaq's Ring.

[Trav226]

Mark my words my NY Knicks are getting to the second round of the playoffs no doubt

[Mofoticon]

Mark my words my NY Knicks are getting to the second round of the playoffs no doubt

[NobBe Nobbs]

So wait a second, what stage of the season are we at now?

[Assy]

It's only the 3rd Night of Games this year, but Thursday only has two games as part of the TV Deal.

[alldaws1]

The Bulls beat the reigning champs, the Magic beat the Bulls. CLEARLY the Magic are the best team in the league ¬_¬

[JStarr]

The Bulls beat the reigning champs, the Magic beat the Bulls. CLEARLY the Magic are the best team in the league ¬_¬

Hella better than the Knicks, anyway.

[Kyle_]

I want the record to state that at one point the Minnesota Timberwolves did have a winning record this year

[Guest C-rave]

As a New Yorker, lets hope that the Knicks can bring some sort of dignity back here. Actually, the Knicks do have a shot at starting the season 3-0.

[Mofoticon]

And the Knicks lose to Atlanta, considered to be the worst team in the East this year...:lmao:

Also, HUGE road win for the Cavs, winning at SA for the first time since 1988.