2018-2019 NBA Regular Season Thread

[lebron23james]

My post had nothing at all to do with Cleveland. KD didn't want to play with Russ. So he left. End of story.

Not rehashing the the 2015 and 2016 Finals for the millionth time. Objective people know what happened. Both teams benefitted from the other's injury situations. You can't say one was lucky without saying the other was lucky.

Cleveland got a ring. Be happy about that. Because you very easily could have had 0.

And they could have just as easily got 2.

All excuses aside here are the facts:

First year Lebron and Scrubs go to game 6 including taking HC in the series

Second year Lebron and better players win

It's as clear as day when lebron and scrubs takes a healthy GS team with HC to game 6, that GS isn't going to beat the cavs when the scrubs suddenly become Kyrie and Love (no matter how healthy they are). GS the following year is now coming off a championship and less pressure well Love and Kyrie are about to be playing in the finals for the first time, ie less experience. Unless Curry was also injured in the first finals as well? So what happened the following year. GS lost, shocker right....A team that took 6 games to beat lebron and scrubs losses to a team where his next 2 best players are not Jr Smith and Thompson anymore. That is exactly what happened, all excuses aside. Keep in mind the first finals is always the hardest to win as well. So going into the following year the cavs were also at a huge disadvantage because of that fact compared to GS. Add on to this that once again they did not have HC...So even with the deck stacked in favor of GS the cavs still won with every disadvantage, imagine if the Cavs had HC and GS was missing 2 of their players with an actual injury!...It would have been a blowout, not close series lol

 

[tlance]

While I agree that drafting Luka might have them looking even better, Fox would not be having the same season with him on the team because they'd both need the ball a lot. He would have filled in the SF problem they have while also thinning out some of the young big man depth. Bagley had 17 yesterday on 8/9 shooting and has had a solid season even if it isn't talked about as much as Luka's or JJJ's. If I had to pick one or the other right now it would still be Luka, but I think(hope) that Bagley can be good enough to not make that pick a total failure.

Good points for sure.

Still though, Luka could end up being a superstar. JJJ is going to be damn good too.

I have no doubt Bagley will be productive, but he needs to be more than productive given who he was drafted ahead of.

While it is true that Luka would take a few of Fox's touches, I think it will be a long time before we see a team win a championship without at least 2 all star caliber perimeter players. It is a bad idea to take a big ahead of a do everything wing with size in the modern NBA. Doncic is that guy.

 

[lebron23james]

So basically what i am telling you Tfag is no matter how healthy you think curry was or wasn't is irrelevant. No matter how many advantages including HC, coming off a championship etc didn't matter...A team of Curry/Thompson/Green was just not as good as a team of Lebron/Kyrie/Love and that was never going to change...It's why Green broke down in the parking lot calling for help lol

Mainly because of how great lebron is and how much better he is than Curry, thompson and green...Not sure what is so hard to understand about this?

 

[Bolts]

I agree. Hard to argue with 13 and 6 off the bench in his rookie season

In only 24 minutes per game, very good production.

 

[tlance]

And they could have just as easily got 2.

All excuses aside here are the facts:

First year Lebron and Scrubs go to game 6 including taking HC in the series

Second year Lebron and better players win

It's as clear as day when lebron and scrubs takes a healthy GS team with HC to game 6, that GS isn't going to beat the cavs when the scrubs suddenly become Kyrie and Love (no matter how healthy they are). GS the following year is now coming off a championship and less pressure well Love and Kyrie are about to be playing in the finals for the first time, ie less experience. Unless Curry was also injured in the first finals as well? So what happened the following year. GS lost, shocker right....A team that took 6 games to beat lebron and scrubs losses to a team where his next 2 best players are not Jr Smith and Thompson anymore. That is exactly what happened, all excuses aside. Keep in mind the first finals is always the hardest to win as well. So going into the following year the cavs were also at a huge disadvantage because of that fact compared to GS. Add on to this that once again they did not have HC...So even with the deck stacked in favor of GS the cavs still won with every disadvantage, imagine if the Cavs had HC and GS was missing 2 of their players with an actual injury!...It would have been a blowout, not close series lol

No, it was not clear as day. Not even close.

In 2015, Cleveland had a head coach the players didn't listen to. Kyrie was not on the same page with LeBron and Kevin Love has simply never had a substantial impact in any series with Warriors because his offensive skills were somewhat marginalized by his defensive weakness.

And in 2016, it was a lot more than just Curry. Dray got suspended for the game 5 clincher, where Bogut and Iggy were both injured also. Iggy played but was not as effective as he had been in games 1-5. But losing Bogut had a trickle down effect on the rest of the roster leading to far too many minutes for scrubs like Festis Ezeli.

As per usual, you way oversimplify. You also neglect the fact that in 2015 the Cavs lost game 1 with Kyrie, and in 2016 they won game 3 in blowout fashion without Kevin Love.

Both teams benefitted from the other's misfortune in their title years, but if you actually put this to a vote, I doubt many outside of Cleveland homers would say Cleveland was better both years. Because if both teams had been 100% both seasons, GS was a lot more likely to win both than Cleveland would have been.

But alas, we will never know because that isn't how it went down. And you repeating the same garbage over and over is not changing anybody's opinion.

 

[tlance]

So basically what i am telling you Tfag is no matter how healthy you think curry was or wasn't is irrelevant. No matter how many advantages including HC, coming off a championship etc didn't matter...A team of Curry/Thompson/Green was just not as good as a team of Lebron/Kyrie/Love and that was never going to change...It's why Green broke down in the parking lot calling for help lol

Mainly because of how great lebron is and how much better he is than Curry, thompson and green...Not sure what is so hard to understand about this?

LeBron was the best player on the court by a wide margin. That is about the only thing you have right.

 

[Bolts]

Good points for sure.

Still though, Luka could end up being a superstar. JJJ is going to be damn good too.

I have no doubt Bagley will be productive, but he needs to be more than productive given who he was drafted ahead of.

While it is true that Luka would take a few of Fox's touches, I think it will be a long time before we see a team win a championship without at least 2 all star caliber perimeter players. It is a bad idea to take a big ahead of a do everything wing with size in the modern NBA. Doncic is that guy.

In his rookie season coming off the bench, I'll take production like Bagley has given any day. Luka has great stats because he's really good but also because he was given the keys to that franchise and plays a lot of minutes. I'm gonna assume by next season that Bagley is starting or at least having a bigger role and we'll see when that happens how he handles needing to score/rebound/block more. If Bagley ends up a career 13 and 6 guy or at least has those stats during the first 5-10 years of his career it'll be disappointing but I think he will improve and those numbers along with the impact he has on the team will go up. Now if he averages 13 and 6 for 5-10 years and the Kings have multiple NBA titles during that span I won't be as disappointed.

Also the Kings might have their 2nd all star caliber perimeter player already, Buddy keeps improving and Bogi has been great in his Manu role. One of them could make it there.

 

[tlance]

In his rookie season coming off the bench, I'll take production like Bagley has given any day. Luka has great stats because he's really good but also because he was given the keys to that franchise and plays a lot of minutes. I'm gonna assume by next season that Bagley is starting or at least having a bigger role and we'll see when that happens how he handles needing to score/rebound/block more. If Bagley ends up a career 13 and 6 guy or at least has those stats during the first 5-10 years of his career it'll be disappointing but I think he will improve and those numbers along with the impact he has on the team will go up. Now if he averages 13 and 6 for 5-10 years and the Kings have multiple NBA titles during that span I won't be as disappointed.

Also the Kings might have their 2nd all star caliber perimeter player already, Buddy keeps improving and Bogi has been great in his Manu role. One of them could make it there.

1 thing is for sure.

Your Kangz are in much better shape than my Wizards. And that would be true even if Bagley were Jahlil Okafor 2.0 (I highly doubt that).

 

[tlance]

So basically what i am telling you Tfag is no matter how healthy you think curry was or wasn't is irrelevant. No matter how many advantages including HC, coming off a championship etc didn't matter...A team of Curry/Thompson/Green was just not as good as a team of Lebron/Kyrie/Love and that was never going to change...It's why Green broke down in the parking lot calling for help lol

Mainly because of how great lebron is and how much better he is than Curry, thompson and green...Not sure what is so hard to understand about this?

If it was "so obvious", then why was GS heavily favored by Vegas odds makers immediately before the Finals started both years? Upsets in sports happen all the time, but the odds makers always favor the team most likely to win. And the odds clearly said the Warriors were the superior team both seasons.

 

[DJ]

Just watched ND State-Colgate and about to watch Army-Navy.





Check in here later.

 

[lebron23james]

No, it was not clear as day. Not even close.

In 2015, Cleveland had a head coach the players didn't listen to. Kyrie was not on the same page with LeBron and Kevin Love has simply never had a substantial impact in any series with Warriors because his offensive skills were somewhat marginalized by his defensive weakness.

And in 2016, it was a lot more than just Curry. Dray got suspended for the game 5 clincher, where Bogut and Iggy were both injured also. Iggy played but was not as effective as he had been in games 1-5. But losing Bogut had a trickle down effect on the rest of the roster leading to far too many minutes for scrubs like Festis Ezeli.

As per usual, you way oversimplify. You also neglect the fact that in 2015 the Cavs lost game 1 with Kyrie, and in 2016 they won game 3 in blowout fashion without Kevin Love.

Both teams benefitted from the other's misfortune in their title years, but if you actually put this to a vote, I doubt many outside of Cleveland homers would say Cleveland was better both years. Because if both teams had been 100% both seasons, GS was a lot more likely to win both than Cleveland would have been.

But alas, we will never know because that isn't how it went down. And you repeating the same garbage over and over is not changing anybody's opinion.

If both teams were 100% and playing on neutral grounds the cavs would be favored 80/100 in series

Kyrie got injured in game 1 and was playing great

Lebron took absoloute scrubs to game 6 of the finals. I mean we are talking about players that may not even be starting material on lottery teams.

Did it ever occur to you that you are just making excuses and overrating Curry who just happens to play on a great team but their best accomplishment (pre durant) was beating a team were 2 of the 3 stars were out?

The so called crippled GS team in 2016 was able to beat a team of Durant, RW and Ibaka...

 

[lebron23james]

If it was "so obvious", then why was GS heavily favored by Vegas odds makers immediately before the Finals started both years? Upsets in sports happen all the time, but the odds makers always favor the team most likely to win. And the odds clearly said the Warriors were the superior team both seasons.

Because they had Home court. Take a wild guess how many times the team with HC wins the championship? Also, Kevin Love got injured prior to the finals the first year.

In the 2nd year they had the wind at their back with HC again coming off a championship with no pressure and with championship experience. The Cavs on the flip side had yet to win, 2 of their stars had no finals experience and had all the pressure in the world to finally win.

The 3rd year if durant didn't join would have proved my point, it may have been the first time the pressure was on GS, and possibly without HC...See how they perform without everythink stacked for them.

We are not talking about a neutral field. If the Cavs had HC, and Green was out for the series who do you think Vegas would put as the favorites? You are still bitching about missing 1 game for christ sakes lol

 

[lebron23james]

And in 2016, it was a lot more than just Curry. Dray got suspended for the game 5 clincher, where Bogut and Iggy were both injured also. Iggy played but was not as effective as he had been in games 1-5. But losing Bogut had a trickle down effect on the rest of the roster leading to far too many minutes for scrubs like Festis Ezeli.

As per usual, you way oversimplify. You also neglect the fact that in 2015 the Cavs lost game 1 with Kyrie, and in 2016 they won game 3 in blowout fashion without Kevin Love..

You can make all the excuses in the world, it won't change the fact that when all 3 players played each other on the court, the cavs big 3 won.

Here is the funniest part with your logic. First, you use the excuse than Green missed game 5. Then right below it you say the cavs won in blowout fashion without kevin Love. As if that was some grand point that the cavs are somehow better without love and or Kyrie. Here is the problem with that theory, Well Green payed in game 6 and 7 and they also lost.

You are making excuses for GS, well trying to bash Kyrie and Love for the same thing you are making an excuse for GS...Classic

lol

 

[tlance]

You can make all the excuses in the world, it won't change the fact that when all 3 players played each other on the court, the cavs big 3 won.

Here is the funniest part with your logic. First, you use the excuse than Green missed game 5. Then right below it you say the cavs won in blowout fashion without kevin Love. As if that was some grand point that the cavs are somehow better without love and or Kyrie. Here is the problem with that theory, Well Green payed in game 6 and 7 and they also lost.

You are making excuses for GS, well trying to bash Kyrie and Love for the same thing you are making an excuse for GS...Classic

lol

No.

Love has almost no impact in that particular matchup. That is the point.

Not doing this again. If the Cavs were better, the Warriors would not have been 2-1 favorites in 2015, and I think even bigger in 2016.

And no, that wasn't just about home court advantage. The Warriors were also -185 favorites to win the WCF last year despite Houston having home court.

So as per usual, you are just making stuff up while I use facts.

But I am done arguing about 3 years ago with somebody delusional enough to believe Kyrie Irving is better than Steph Curry and is on a better career trajectory. LOL.

 

[Bolts]

1 thing is for sure.

Your Kangz are in much better shape than my Wizards. And that would be true even if Bagley were Jahlil Okafor 2.0 (I highly doubt that).

The Wizards fall came so quick, they might not have been finals contenders going into the season but I expected them to at least be around the 5-6 spot in the East. Trading Wall, Porter, and maybe Beal to start a rebuild makes sense if they can find teams willing to take the first two contracts and someone who will give up enough for Beal. They've had chances with that core group and it didn't work out, time to move past it.

 

[Bolts]

This might need to be posted in the rookies thread.

 

[lebron23james]

No.

Love has almost no impact in that particular matchup. That is the point.

Not doing this again. If the Cavs were better, the Warriors would not have been 2-1 favorites in 2015, and I think even bigger in 2016.

And no, that wasn't just about home court advantage. The Warriors were also -185 favorites to win the WCF last year despite Houston having home court.

So as per usual, you are just making stuff up while I use facts.

But I am done arguing about 3 years ago with somebody delusional enough to believe Kyrie Irving is better than Steph Curry and is on a better career trajectory. LOL.

Then why did they win with Kyrie and Love and Lose without him

Here is the funny thing you don't even realize. Basketball is a game of momentum. Your idea that Green missed 1 game, and it threw the team completely off and killed their momentum is hilarious, because it brings me backs to the first finals when Kyrie and Love both getting injured. Let's assume Kyrie and Love both played and played great. They would have momentum going into the following year and been even better the following year from that experience. Klay Thompson was clearly better the 2nd year vs the 1st year where he claimed the "lights were too bright" the first time.

You go on to point out that the Cavs beat GS in the first finals in game 3 without love, as if that is some kind of point, yet fail to realize in your faulty logic that Green who missed that game, happened to play in the next 2. That comes off as a desperate excuse.

It's not hard to realize. Lebron, Irving and Love is better than Curry, Green, Thompson...Even without HC...And no surprise the only time they all played the cavs even without HC, and all the disadvantages i already pointed out about momentum still won. Imagine on a neutral playing field...

Think about how much better of a team you have to be in order to win without HC, without momentum and without finals experience for your 2 other stars. You said upsets happen...Not in 7 game basketball series they don't. There is a reason no other team in history has come back from a 3-1 deficit let alone won a game 7 on the road. That is how much better they were

 

[lebron23james]

Now on the flip side if Green and Thompson were the ones who got injured and were out for the series and the cavs had HC you think the great curry was taking that team to game 6 of the finals? If your answer is no lance, you know who is the better team...

 

[tlance]

Then why did they win with Kyrie and Love and Lose without him

Here is the funny thing you don't even realize. Basketball is a game of momentum. Your idea that Green missed 1 game, and it threw the team completely off and killed their momentum is hilarious, because it brings me backs to the first finals when Kyrie and Love both getting injured. Let's assume Kyrie and Love both played and played great. They would have momentum going into the following year and been even better the following year from that experience. Klay Thompson was clearly better the 2nd year vs the 1st year where he claimed the "lights were too bright" the first time.

You go on to point out that the Cavs beat GS in the first finals in game 3 without love, as if that is some kind of point, yet fail to realize in your faulty logic that Green who missed that game, happened to play in the next 2. That comes off as a desperate excuse.

It's not hard to realize. Lebron, Irving and Love is better than Curry, Green, Thompson...Even without HC...And no surprise the only time they all played the cavs even without HC, and all the disadvantages i already pointed out about momentum still won. Imagine on a neutral playing field...

Think about how much better of a team you have to be in order to win without HC, without momentum and without finals experience for your 2 other stars. You said upsets happen...Not in 7 game basketball series they don't. There is a reason no other team in history has come back from a 3-1 deficit let alone won a game 7 on the road. That is how much better they were

I have been over this.

Because the Warriors faced significant adversity in 2016 due to their injury status while Cleveland was full go. And how did the Warriors build a 3-1 lead in the first place with Curry playing hurt?

It was those other factors along with Curry's injury, historically bad shooting from Harrison Barnes and historically great play from Kyrie and LeBron that turned the series. And they still needed every 1 of those things to eke out a game 7 victory because GS was the better team.

By the way, for your vegas theory, the Cavs were also favored to beat the Celtics last year despite the Celtics having HCA.

You know why?

Because the Cavs were better than the celtics.

 

[msgkings322]

Just watched ND State-Colgate and about to watch Army-Navy.





Check in here later.

I'll clear my schedule. We're all counting on you!