HurricaneDij's 2016-17 NBA Outlook (September 2016)

[WiggyRuss]

Sorry I take back my ROY predictions. Forgot about one guy who is going to dominate: Pat McCaw.

well with West and Pachulia in front of him he does have a clear path for a lot of minutes


Im thinking Felder.....these scrawny point guards who spend half a lifetime in college and dominate for small programs like Felder, Curry, Lillard usually are well prepared for the NBA...

 

[DJ Fieri]

Denver will be a FA destination one day?

 

[Shanemansj13]

well with West and Pachulia in front of him he does have a clear path for a lot of minutes


Im thinking Felder.....these scrawny point guards who spend half a lifetime in college and dominate for small programs like Felder, Curry, Lillard usually are well prepared for the NBA...

Well Felder isn't really scrawny but I agree. He is about the same build as Isiah Thomas

 

[DJ Fieri]

Denver will be a popular FA destination one day?

Fixed.

 

[HurricaneDij39]

I just don't like predicting ROY. I'm of the belief these newbies need to earn their stripes in this league.

 

[HurricaneDij39]

Denver will be a FA destination one day?

Yes. With their i proved collection of young talent and with Gallinari and Faried coming off the books soon, they're going to have all the cap space you could dream of.

 

[trojanfan12]

Yes. With their i proved collection of young talent and with Gallinari and Faried coming off the books soon, they're going to have all the cap space you could dream of.

Cap space doesn't make a team a FA destination.

 

[trojanfan12]

Denver will be a FA destination one day?

When they start a professional skiing league...yes.

 

[HurricaneDij39]

Cap space doesn't make a team a FA destination.

Right, because the money these teams hand out these days is useless. Good call.

Seriously though, I think more free agents will consider Denver once some of this young talent becomes more proven. Even Wade considered them this year.

All in all, it was probably "filler" analysis on my part anyway as I needed to write something about my Nuggets. So, there's no reason for Laker(s) fans to get jealous of the possibility that I may think Denver is a greater FA destination than the Lakers, which I had never actually claimed.

 

[DJ Fieri]

When they start a professional skiing league...yes.

 

[trojanfan12]

Right, because the money these teams hand out these days is useless. Good call.

The Lakers had tons of cap space, lots of young talent and a young coach that many players supposedly want to play for. Los Angeles has often been called a "destination city." How many top FA's did they even get a meeting with?

The Mavs have arguably the most player friendly owner in the league, play in a great city and have a very accommodating top level player who has openly said he'd take a back seat to a top FA. Cuban always seems to create cap space. How many top FA's have they signed...ever?

Every season we see teams create cap space to land top flight FA's and every year we see them swing and miss.

There is a lot more required than cap space these days. Teams need to show an ability to win right now or at least very soon. That was the tough lesson the Lakers learned when they first started trying to land top FA's after Dwight left. It was no longer enough to just show up and say "We're the Lakers" they actually have to have a plan to win soon.

As a Lakers fan, I'm not jealous at all and the fact is that the Nugs could very well become, at least temporarily, more of a destination franchise than the Lakers if their youngsters show they are ready to win before the Lakers youngsters do.

 

[HurricaneDij39]

So, does anyone besides Wiggy and Sushi care to rank teams by conference?

 

[WiggyRuss]

The Lakers had tons of cap space, lots of young talent and a young coach that many players supposedly want to play for. Los Angeles has often been called a "destination city." How many top FA's did they even get a meeting with?

The Mavs have arguably the most player friendly owner in the league, play in a great city and have a very accommodating top level player who has openly said he'd take a back seat to a top FA. Cuban always seems to create cap space. How many top FA's have they signed...ever?

Every season we see teams create cap space to land top flight FA's and every year we see them swing and miss.

There is a lot more required than cap space these days. Teams need to show an ability to win right now or at least very soon. That was the tough lesson the Lakers learned when they first started trying to land top FA's after Dwight left. It was no longer enough to just show up and say "We're the Lakers" they actually have to have a plan to win soon.

As a Lakers fan, I'm not jealous at all and the fact is that the Nugs could very well become, at least temporarily, more of a destination franchise than the Lakers if their youngsters show they are ready to win before the Lakers youngsters do.

itll be interesting thats for sure.....Gary Harris, Nurkic, Jokic, Nance Jr., Clarkson, Russell, Randle, Ingram, Murray, Mudiay......

a couple of those guys will prob go on to be all stars, a couple solid contributors, a couple maybe decent end of the bench guys, and a couple will probably suck....thats just probability.

Should be interesting to see who does what.

 

[trojanfan12]

itll be interesting thats for sure.....Gary Harris, Nurkic, Jokic, Nance Jr., Clarkson, Russell, Randle, Ingram, Murray, Mudiay......

a couple of those guys will prob go on to be all stars, a couple solid contributors, a couple maybe decent end of the bench guys, and a couple will probably suck....thats just probability.

Should be interesting to see who does what.

Agree. It's part of why, in some ways, I'm more excited to watch the Lakers this coming season than when they have been contenders. It's going to be a lot of fun to see how these guys develop as players, how Luke performs/develops as an HC, etc., etc.

Don't get me wrong...I want them to be contenders. But it's a different kind of excitement looking forward to seeing the kids learn and develop.

 

[knowyourenemy]

I won't predict records but here is how I see the NBA in 2016-2017:

Tier 1
Golden State
Cleveland

Tier 2
L.A. Clippers
San Antonio
Portland

Tier 3
Indiana
Toronto
Houston
Boston
Oklahoma City
Memphis
Chicago (maybe?)
New York (maybe?)

No one else really matters because they don't have the talent to do much of anything in the playoffs. Even some of the Tier 3 teams are huge question marks because who knows how the additions in Chicago and New York will play out.

 

[CodeBreaker]

Knicks have enough talent to make the playoffs. 5 or 6 seed on my list.

 

[LogicMan]

I like know your enemy's post. I can't believe people are arguing the ROY in September.

 

[HurricaneDij39]

The Lakers had tons of cap space, lots of young talent and a young coach that many players supposedly want to play for. Los Angeles has often been called a "destination city." How many top FA's did they even get a meeting with?

The Mavs have arguably the most player friendly owner in the league, play in a great city and have a very accommodating top level player who has openly said he'd take a back seat to a top FA. Cuban always seems to create cap space. How many top FA's have they signed...ever?

Every season we see teams create cap space to land top flight FA's and every year we see them swing and miss.

There is a lot more required than cap space these days. Teams need to show an ability to win right now or at least very soon. That was the tough lesson the Lakers learned when they first started trying to land top FA's after Dwight left. It was no longer enough to just show up and say "We're the Lakers" they actually have to have a plan to win soon.

As a Lakers fan, I'm not jealous at all and the fact is that the Nugs could very well become, at least temporarily, more of a destination franchise than the Lakers if their youngsters show they are ready to win before the Lakers youngsters do.

Well, you guys did land Deng and Mozgov...Granted, they might not be the players you had hoped for, but it's proof that money talks regardless of a given team's situation. If you spend money, players will come. Denver though, had only targeted one free agent of significance this summer - Wade. Current Nugget Mike Miller had done everything in his power to recruit his former Miami teammate to Denver, but Wade ultimately chose to play for his hometown team, which probably makes more sense for him anyway. Case and point, this is proof that Denver will attract someone, it's just a matter of "when" and not "if". It's probably best to wait for this collection of talent to develop on it own for awhile regardless, but the financial flexibility will be there in the coming years.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Well, you guys did land Deng and Mozgov...Granted, they might not be the players you had hoped for, but it's proof that money talks regardless of a given team's situation. If you spend money, players will come. Denver though, had only targeted one free agent of significance this summer - Wade. Current Nugget Mike Miller had done everything in his power to recruit his former Miami teammate to Denver, but Wade ultimately chose to play for his hometown team, which probably makes more sense for him anyway. Case and point, this is proof that Denver will attract someone, it's just a matter of "when" and not "if". It's probably best to wait for this collection of talent to develop on it own for awhile regardless, but the financial flexibility will be there in the coming years.

If the Nuggets decided to jump charge the youth movement i could seee them getting back a pretty solid return on Faried and or Gallinari near the trade deadline....both guys would be very helpful to a contender.

young back courts rarely win anything - mudiay and murray are good- but its gonna be a couple years before they are ready to win in the NBA consistently.

 

[trojanfan12]

Well, you guys did land Deng and Mozgov...Granted, they might not be the players you had hoped for, but it's proof that money talks regardless of a given team's situation. If you spend money, players will come. Denver though, had only targeted one free agent of significance this summer - Wade. Current Nugget Mike Miller had done everything in his power to recruit his former Miami teammate to Denver, but Wade ultimately chose to play for his hometown team, which probably makes more sense for him anyway. Case and point, this is proof that Denver will attract someone, it's just a matter of "when" and not "if". It's probably best to wait for this collection of talent to develop on it own for awhile regardless, but the financial flexibility will be there in the coming years.

The fact that the Lakers could only get Deng and Mozgov proves my point. Those guys aren't franchise changing talents. They are very good pickups for a team in the Lakers situation (a team trying to develop young talent and get back into contention). But let's not pretend they will be anything more than afterthoughts when the Lakers actually return to contention.

Of course teams can get guys like Deng and Mozgov. Guys at that level don't always have a lot of choices and will generally go for the team that will give them the most money and/or the most years.

The franchise changing guys like KD, Lebron, Westbrook, etc. however, can go anywhere they want and in order to get them the team has to show the ability to win right away.