NBA 2017-2018 Season

[gunnar hendershow]

I think you're right. Some of the east seedings might wind up that way as well.

[Benjamin]

Bulls reunion in Minnesota! 

[JasonM]

7 hours ago, Benjamin said:

Bulls reunion in Minnesota! 

Now time to trade for Joakin Noah and Luol Deng 

[Benjamin]

That is honestly one of my favorite NBA teams of all time, and this was before Butler became the player that he is 

They could just coax Boozer out of retirement, then Thibs will have all his favorite toys back.

[Pooker]

This Jazz team is fast becoming one of my favorite teams in a very long time. 

[Benjamin]

Damn, that Raps / Thunder game was madness. 

[The Red Reuben]

Good grief, James Harden is having a good year. Could they possibly win the title?

[gunnar hendershow]

On 3/22/2018 at 23:23, Carparama said:

Good grief, James Harden is having a good year. Could they possibly win the title?

I think they'll probably lose in 7 to Golden State but Steph's knee might change that completely. He should be back early enough into the playoffs but 2 years ago there was a similar storyline and Steph definitely didn't reach 100% at any point and then the Cavs just grinded him down in the Finals.

Needless to say whoever makes it out of the East is gonna get destroyed by either of these teams.

[Meacon Keaton]

On 3/22/2018 at 23:23, Carparama said:

Good grief, James Harden is having a good year. Could they possibly win the title?

It's still fun to think about the fact that Oklahoma City decided to extend Serge Ibaka's contract instead of Harden's. Can you imagine if Harden and Westbrook were still on a team together? Nobody else would ever touch the ball.

[gunnar hendershow]

11 minutes ago, Meacon said:

It's still fun to think about the fact that Oklahoma City decided to extend Serge Ibaka's contract instead of Harden's. Can you imagine if Harden and Westbrook were still on a team together? Nobody else would ever touch the ball.

The Harden trade was bad then, worse later, and unforgivable now.

After this year OKC will have drafted 3 of the past 4 guys to win MVP and have a single conference title to show for it. And that's the apex of this entire era, Golden State and now Houston are light years ahead of them. If they had even hung onto Harden another year and figured out what to do then they might have realized what they had and the rest would be history. 4 or 5 titles later the Thunder are the defining team of this decade.

[Pooker]

Pretty cool moment in the Jazz game tonight when David Stockton, son of legend John Stockton, got to check in for the last two minutes. His ten day contract is up tomorrow and I doubt we sign him to another one, so it was awesome to see him get to play for a little bit.

Also, we can't beat the Hawks for some reason, but we'll keep blowing out the Warriors!

[Benjamin]

13 hours ago, damsher hatfield said:

The Harden trade was bad then, worse later, and unforgivable now.

After this year OKC will have drafted 3 of the past 4 guys to win MVP and have a single conference title to show for it. And that's the apex of this entire era, Golden State and now Houston are light years ahead of them. If they had even hung onto Harden another year and figured out what to do then they might have realized what they had and the rest would be history. 4 or 5 titles later the Thunder are the defining team of this decade.

I still think about it when I see Harden play sometimes, especially against OKC. They traded this guy. They didn't have a choice with KD, but they considered James Harden as the extra guy. Insane that had they kept him, and he had grown into the player he was, at very least in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. San Antonio would probably never have made the finals twice in a row. 

[JasonM]

In hindsight the trade is obviously terrible. But having three offensive superstar wouldn't mean all three would've been scoring over 25 a game once Harden caught up to Russ and KD.

Harden is ultimately an extremely offensive minded player with little effort on defense even after all these years.

Back then he was expected to be a Ben Gordon type player, who could score but never defended.

Him turning into a MVP was the most outrageous scenario. But he wouldn't have reached that with Russ and KD on the same team.

They could've traded for much better assets and they fucked up massively in that regard. Also the owner wanting to stay under the luxury at all costs crippled their ability to make a deal.

[Malenko]

Harden had a ton more potential than Ben Gordon. It's true he's not great defensively and he'll probably never be (which is still enough to be better than Gordon ever was) but he had great vision and understanding of the offensive game and scouts were aware of that even while he was at Arizona State. Were they expecting him to be dishing out 10 assists a game in the NBA? Probably not, but it can't be a massive surprise that he isn't a one-dimensional scorer because he never was. 

I agree playing with Westbrook and Durant, he would probably fail to reach his current level, since both would probably be ahead of him up to this day had the trio remained together, but that comparison is just not fair.

The trade didn't look as bad at the time as it does today, but it always looked kinda bad.

EDIT: "A ton" may be harsh, but still...

Edited March 26, 2018 by Malenko

[gunnar hendershow]

He would have been at worst Klay Thompson with less defense. They played him as a 6th man well past the point of him being someone who should be coming off the bench, but because of his defense they felt he was expendable. At the time my biggest criticism of it was how rushed it was. Right before the season started they pulled the trigger on a deal that would forever change the fortunes of the franchise. It all falls back on the owner for forcing Presti into making a move to stay under the tax. If they had made it to the regular season and seen the degree to which Harden improved they'd have ever rethought things or been able to get a lot more for him.

[Meacon Keaton]

I hate to admit it, but the Sixers are so much fun to watch. Markelle Fultz debuted last night and scored 10 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds, all on offense. They're a very, very good all around team. 

My grandfather, a Knick fan, likely just rolled over in his grave or whatever the equivalent to being cremated is; fluttered in the wind?

[Malenko]

He didn't debut. He returned yesterday. The rest I agree with. I'm not a sixers fan but at the moment I find them very entertaining to watch and so I'm happy these sixers are playoff bound.

[thatshortguy]

1 hour ago, Meacon said:

I hate to admit it, but the Sixers are so much fun to watch. Markelle Fultz debuted last night and scored 10 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds, all on offense. They're a very, very good all around team. 

If they can manage everyone's health (looking at you, Process), this team could be just as good as the Rockets in terms of depth in just a year or two.  They remind me of the '01-'02 Kings; that plucky team that I fall in love with only to see them bounced by the obvious favorites.

[gunnar hendershow]

What I can't get over with in regards to the Sixers is how young everyone is and how much flexibility they have to fill holes around these guys over the next few years.

[Meacon Keaton]

If I had any faith in the front office, I’d love for the Knicks to tank a few years to try the approach. We suck anyway. Why not lose a dozen more times to get a higher percentage for a #1?