2018-2019 NBA Regular Season Thread

[shopson67]

Doesn't matter. What is the point of fighting hard to tie up the offensive player only for a silly possession arrow to determine possession

Pro refs can hardly manage to toss good jump balls. Guess they don't want to tax those college refs....

 

[CitySushi]

LMAO at anyone who gives Kyrie a deal longer than a 3 years

Knicks would give him a 10 year deal easily.

 

[Wamu]

Knicks would give him a 10 year deal easily.

Kyrie Irving & James Dolan are meant for each other.

 

[WiggyRuss]

out of the 10 worst teams in the NBA - I will rank them in the order that they "deserve" to win the lotto:
1. Atlanta Hawks - have never really tanked, have a good young trio- have played hard all year.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers- just had LeBron leave, are rebuilding and Nick Gilbert is a great good luck charm.

3. Dallas Mavericks- no non-tanking bad karma juju. Have not had a really high pick in a long time.

4. Grizzlies- never really tanked- have not had a high pick in a long time- would be nice if they moved up (at least not at the expense of the Cavs)

5. Suns- they are just terrible and have had tons of high picks lately, but with only 17 wins they shouldnt slip too far down

6. Bulls- ehh.....they got really lucky to get Rose and their ownership is really cheap.

7. Pelicans- would be pretty awesome for them to get Zion to replace Davis- and get a nice haul for Davis- and send him out the door.

8. Bricks- plenty of tanking bad karma juju, Dolan is an asshole, they just drove off Porzingis- but they are just terrible

9. Wizards- dont deserve shit- terribly run.

10. Lakers? LOL

 

[Black Adam]

out of the 10 worst teams in the NBA - I will rank them in the order that they "deserve" to win the lotto:
1. Atlanta Hawks - have never really tanked, have a good young trio- have played hard all year.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers- just had LeBron leave, are rebuilding and Nick Gilbert is a great good luck charm.

3. Dallas Mavericks- no non-tanking bad karma juju. Have not had a really high pick in a long time.

4. Grizzlies- never really tanked- have not had a high pick in a long time- would be nice if they moved up (at least not at the expense of the Cavs)

5. Suns- they are just terrible and have had tons of high picks lately, but with only 17 wins they shouldnt slip too far down

6. Bulls- ehh.....they got really lucky to get Rose and their ownership is really cheap.

7. Pelicans- would be pretty awesome for them to get Zion to replace Davis- and get a nice haul for Davis- and send him out the door.

8. Bricks- plenty of tanking bad karma juju, Dolan is an asshole, they just drove off Porzingis- but they are just terrible

9. Wizards- dont deserve shit- terribly run.

10. Lakers? LOL

nice to see how objective you were with this...

 

[CitySushi]

out of the 10 worst teams in the NBA - I will rank them in the order that they "deserve" to win the lotto:
1. Atlanta Hawks - have never really tanked, have a good young trio- have played hard all year.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers- just had LeBron leave, are rebuilding and Nick Gilbert is a great good luck charm.

3. Dallas Mavericks- no non-tanking bad karma juju. Have not had a really high pick in a long time.

4. Grizzlies- never really tanked- have not had a high pick in a long time- would be nice if they moved up (at least not at the expense of the Cavs)

5. Suns- they are just terrible and have had tons of high picks lately, but with only 17 wins they shouldnt slip too far down

6. Bulls- ehh.....they got really lucky to get Rose and their ownership is really cheap.

7. Pelicans- would be pretty awesome for them to get Zion to replace Davis- and get a nice haul for Davis- and send him out the door.

8. Bricks- plenty of tanking bad karma juju, Dolan is an asshole, they just drove off Porzingis- but they are just terrible

9. Wizards- dont deserve shit- terribly run.

10. Lakers? LOL

What's your definition of "deserve". Would help put a lot of these in context.

 

[WiggyRuss]

What's your definition of "deserve". Would help put a lot of these in context.

a combination of things- tanking juju, past-picks, recent bad/good luck, management competence, ownership d-bagness, and just plain old gut feeling.

 

[CitySushi]

a combination of things- tanking juju, past-picks, recent bad/good luck, management competence, ownership d-bagness, and just plain old gut feeling.

By that metric I think the Grizzlies should be no lower than 2 for sure. They've always done things a pretty classy way in Memphis. They really have only had one terrible move (Chandler Parson's contract) that hampered them and put them into the position they are in. None of their players wanted to be moved and would have preferred to be lifers in a Grizzlies uniform. That has to say a lot about the organization.

I feel the Cavs should be lower because their ownership did a lot of self inflicted harm, IMO. The biggest mistake they made is being short sighted and not keeping David Griffin. He's the guy who rebuild the team from the ground up and put them in a position to land Lebron again and put the pieces necessary around him. Now that the Cavs need another rebuild he would have been a stabilizing piece within the organization. Not that Altman has shown he's incompetent either, just organizational stability should be accounted for. A lot of this of course has a direct linear correlation to Lebron, but for all the shit Cavs fans give Heat fans, they did one thing right in their handling of Lebron.

I'd go:

1) Mavericks - solid front office(basketball wise, not that other shit Cuban let happen), great talent evaluators, coaching is A+ and lots of talent.
2) Grizzlies - decent front office, group that has always played above talent levels through determination and never could consider them to be non-competitive even at their worst.
3) Hawks - front office restructure seems like it's doing well. modeling themselves after the Warriors and building from the ground up with what is looking like a solid foundation. Inconsistent but effort is there.
4) Lakers - This free agency period will be the telling of whether or not the Lakers move up to the 2-3 range in this ranking or slide down to 9-10. I fully believe the plan has always been to go after big names this year which is why the signed 1 year deals to all their current guys. If the plan was to get a big guy this year and it works out, the organization turns out to be brilliant. If they swing and miss well then their misjudgements will haunt them.
5) Suns - place them slightly above the Cavs if only because they've been able to grab a couple potential franchise pieces is Booker and Ayton. Ayton's not getting any love because of Luka and Trae, but he's been impressive too.
6) Cavs - Coddled Lebron and pandered too him too much, and as such has left a gaping hole in the team with bad contracts and rode some talent out of town. On the flip side, they're setting up for another quick rebuild and time will tell if they can turn some of that future cap space and picks into some big hits.
7) Pelicans - Wasted AD's production for nothing. Now he's gone.
8) Bulls - I think their front office is still a mess. Need to get that right first.
9) Knicks - LOL.
10) Wizards - LOL.

 

[WiggyRuss]

By that metric I think the Grizzlies should be no lower than 2 for sure. They've always done things a pretty classy way in Memphis. They really have only had one terrible move (Chandler Parson's contract) that hampered them and put them into the position they are in. None of their players wanted to be moved and would have preferred to be lifers in a Grizzlies uniform. That has to say a lot about the organization.

I feel the Cavs should be lower because their ownership did a lot of self inflicted harm, IMO. The biggest mistake they made is being short sighted and not keeping David Griffin. He's the guy who rebuild the team from the ground up and put them in a position to land Lebron again and put the pieces necessary around him. Now that the Cavs need another rebuild he would have been a stabilizing piece within the organization. Not that Altman has shown he's incompetent either, just organizational stability should be accounted for. A lot of this of course has a direct linear correlation to Lebron, but for all the shit Cavs fans give Heat fans, they did one thing right in their handling of Lebron.

I'd go:

1) Mavericks - solid front office(basketball wise, not that other shit Cuban let happen), great talent evaluators, coaching is A+ and lots of talent.
2) Grizzlies - decent front office, group that has always played above talent levels through determination and never could consider them to be non-competitive even at their worst.
3) Hawks - front office restructure seems like it's doing well. modeling themselves after the Warriors and building from the ground up with what is looking like a solid foundation. Inconsistent but effort is there.
4) Lakers - This free agency period will be the telling of whether or not the Lakers move up to the 2-3 range in this ranking or slide down to 9-10. I fully believe the plan has always been to go after big names this year which is why the signed 1 year deals to all their current guys. If the plan was to get a big guy this year and it works out, the organization turns out to be brilliant. If they swing and miss well then their misjudgements will haunt them.
5) Suns - place them slightly above the Cavs if only because they've been able to grab a couple potential franchise pieces is Booker and Ayton. Ayton's not getting any love because of Luka and Trae, but he's been impressive too.
6) Cavs - Coddled Lebron and pandered too him too much, and as such has left a gaping hole in the team with bad contracts and rode some talent out of town. On the flip side, they're setting up for another quick rebuild and time will tell if they can turn some of that future cap space and picks into some big hits.
7) Pelicans - Wasted AD's production for nothing. Now he's gone.
8) Bulls - I think their front office is still a mess. Need to get that right first.
9) Knicks - LOL.
10) Wizards - LOL.

my biggest issues with yours

1. Lakers 4? they just signed LeBron and are tanking with LeBron. I mean that ends all arguments. lol....that and getting the #2 pick 3 times in the last what? 4 drafts? Not to mention they actively tried to make a franchise so dysfunctional that they would have to just trade their star for 50 cents on the dollar to only the Lakers. Thats some BAD juju

2. Suns have had top picks, and had the #1 pick in a loaded draft just last year, for a while now.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

my biggest issues with yours

1. Lakers 4? they just signed LeBron and are tanking with LeBron. I mean that ends all arguments. lol....that and getting the #2 pick 3 times in the last what? 4 drafts? Not to mention they actively tried to make a franchise so dysfunctional that they would have to just trade their star for 50 cents on the dollar to only the Lakers. Thats some BAD juju

2. Suns have had top picks, and had the #1 pick in a loaded draft just last year, for a while now.

I don't really want to see LeBron get lotto lucky again, but as far as your comment, how are they "tanking"?
They have major injuries that they can't overcome.
Are you implying they could/should be winning these games?

 

[CitySushi]

my biggest issues with yours

1. Lakers 4? they just signed LeBron and are tanking with LeBron. I mean that ends all arguments. lol....that and getting the #2 pick 3 times in the last what? 4 drafts? Not to mention they actively tried to make a franchise so dysfunctional that they would have to just trade their star for 50 cents on the dollar to only the Lakers. Thats some BAD juju

2. Suns have had top picks, and had the #1 pick in a loaded draft just last year, for a while now.

I mean with respects to the Lakers, I get it. I'm right there with you. However while it was not the organizations likely desire to have Lebron on a tanking squad, the premise behind the goal of the season was always the same in that it was directionally pointed at next year as "THE" year. This year there were no title aspiration and realistically most felt a 2nd round appearance would have been their cap. It may actually be a blessing in disguised that they are actively tanking to possibly get a better draft pick and actually have the appeal for a free agent to be "needed" instead of Lebron's sidekick. Again I have them at 4 because I firmly believe the premise was always "next year" and whatever happened this year was a throw away anyways.

Suns I struggled with a bit and could have easily flipped the Cavs for their position. The only reason I went with the Suns above the Cavs is because of a quicker potential turn around as you said with their two top picks.

 

[WiggyRuss]

I don't really want to see LeBron get lotto lucky again, but as far as your comment, how are they "tanking"?
They have major injuries that they can't overcome.
Are you implying they could/should be winning these games?

i dont think for a second that Ingram and Ball would have been shut down for the year, and LeBron would be rested as much as he has lately, if they were going to the playoffs.

 

[Wamu]

i dont think for a second that Ingram and Ball would have been shut down for the year, and LeBron would be rested as much as he has lately, if they were going to the playoffs.

So you're saying the Lakers would have forced Ingram to play the rest of the season w/ venous thrombosis (condition casued by a blood clot) if they were still in the playoff hunt? Yeah okay wiggy.

 

[trojanfan12]

Sign him to a 2 way deal. Keep him in the G-league for a year then bring him up the following year

That's what I'm thinking. They could even bring him up a time or 2 during the season just to see how he responds.

 

[Shanemansj13]

By that metric I think the Grizzlies should be no lower than 2 for sure. They've always done things a pretty classy way in Memphis. They really have only had one terrible move (Chandler Parson's contract) that hampered them and put them into the position they are in. None of their players wanted to be moved and would have preferred to be lifers in a Grizzlies uniform. That has to say a lot about the organization.

I feel the Cavs should be lower because their ownership did a lot of self inflicted harm, IMO. The biggest mistake they made is being short sighted and not keeping David Griffin. He's the guy who rebuild the team from the ground up and put them in a position to land Lebron again and put the pieces necessary around him. Now that the Cavs need another rebuild he would have been a stabilizing piece within the organization. Not that Altman has shown he's incompetent either, just organizational stability should be accounted for. A lot of this of course has a direct linear correlation to Lebron, but for all the shit Cavs fans give Heat fans, they did one thing right in their handling of Lebron.

I'd go:

1) Mavericks - solid front office(basketball wise, not that other shit Cuban let happen), great talent evaluators, coaching is A+ and lots of talent.
2) Grizzlies - decent front office, group that has always played above talent levels through determination and never could consider them to be non-competitive even at their worst.
3) Hawks - front office restructure seems like it's doing well. modeling themselves after the Warriors and building from the ground up with what is looking like a solid foundation. Inconsistent but effort is there.
4) Lakers - This free agency period will be the telling of whether or not the Lakers move up to the 2-3 range in this ranking or slide down to 9-10. I fully believe the plan has always been to go after big names this year which is why the signed 1 year deals to all their current guys. If the plan was to get a big guy this year and it works out, the organization turns out to be brilliant. If they swing and miss well then their misjudgements will haunt them.
5) Suns - place them slightly above the Cavs if only because they've been able to grab a couple potential franchise pieces is Booker and Ayton. Ayton's not getting any love because of Luka and Trae, but he's been impressive too.
6) Cavs - Coddled Lebron and pandered too him too much, and as such has left a gaping hole in the team with bad contracts and rode some talent out of town. On the flip side, they're setting up for another quick rebuild and time will tell if they can turn some of that future cap space and picks into some big hits.
7) Pelicans - Wasted AD's production for nothing. Now he's gone.
8) Bulls - I think their front office is still a mess. Need to get that right first.
9) Knicks - LOL.
10) Wizards - LOL.

Mavs, Grizz and Hawks should be top 3.

Lakers should be at the bottom of the list. What a shitshow.

1. Mavs
2. Grizz
3. Hawks
4. Cavs
5. Suns (could be 4 or 5)
6. Pelicans
7. Bulls

8-10 (Lakers, Knicks, Wiz) - pick your shitshow

 

[Stakesarehigh]

The Wiz could use some ping pong ball karma with that Wall deal.

 

[trojanfan12]

I don't really want to see LeBron get lotto lucky again, but as far as your comment, how are they "tanking"?
They have major injuries that they can't overcome.
Are you implying they could/should be winning these games?

Not to mention that according to Lebron's trainer, he should have been out a lot longer with that injury.

Don't know if that's just to cover for him or if it's real. My guess is that it's somewhere in between. He probably came back to early (evidenced by the fact that it's still apparently sore at times), but I also don't think it should take 6 months to heal like the trainer said.

 

[Stakesarehigh]

Not to mention that according to Lebron's trainer, he should have been out a lot longer with that injury.

Don't know if that's just to cover for him or if it's real. My guess is that it's somewhere in between. He probably came back to early (evidenced by the fact that it's still apparently sore at times), but I also don't think it should take 6 months to heal like the trainer said.

Part of me feels like if not for haters he'd have "re-injured" his groin and sat out the rest of the year like he should've. That was the smart play. Not him putting up empty stats on a bad team. Get the man a rest for chrissakes.

 

[trojanfan12]

i dont think for a second that Ingram and Ball would have been shut down for the year, and LeBron would be rested as much as he has lately, if they were going to the playoffs.

I'm not sure I agree.

On Ball, it does seem a little sketchy because they have said it's a Grade 3 sprain which can actually take months to heal and sometimes requires surgery.

On the other hand, it was originally said to be a "bone bruise" which can also take a long time to heal, but wouldn't have ended his season.

Ingram had a blood clot which was apparently due to a structural issue and required surgery to fix.

Of course, if they were in the playoff hunt, Lebron wouldn't be on a "minutes restriction". But them being in the playoff hunt would also likely mean that they didn't lose Lebron, Ingram and Ball to injury either.

 

[WiggyRuss]

The Wiz could use some ping pong ball karma with that Wall deal.

its precisely why they dont deserve it though! That and the Wiz might be the worst run franchise in the NBA now that the Kings and Twolves are actually moving more towards respectability.