Basketball Super Thread - Evil Empire

So we had a relatively successful basketball thread going last season. And the new season starts tonight! Figured we could use a place to discuss what's going on.

I'm a Chicago Bulls fan through and through, and would really, really love a healthy team to finally make it out of the East. A healthy OKC seems like a possibility out of the West, especially if Westbrook continues on the tear from the last month of the season.

I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS SEASON! And I hope some of you are, too.

2016-2017 edit: I have no idea what's happening in this league, aside from Cavs/Warriors II.

I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE POSTSEASON! Let me know when we get there. Until then, have fun sucking again Pistons. I kind of like the stats movement in Basketball but very little about the regular season is exciting on any given night; aside from human highlight reels like Blake Griffin and so forth.

All I know is I have Halo 5 with me, and I'm going by my dad's to watch the opening tip off.

Everything is out of whack!

I don't have a horse in the race (i'm not american, but love basketball), but to me it's always fun to follow the young teams that have a chance to take a leap forward, like the bucks or the pelicans, i also secretely hope that with Anthony Davies, Demarcus Cousins and the like the nba becomes a forward dominated league, rather than a guard league, i really like seeing the ball in the post and dont love the prominence that the three ball has now a days, but that is the route the game has evolved so i'm not complaining as much as i would like to see more of the big men.

I'm ready for basketball again! It's gonna be fun watching my team hopefully improve maybe! (I'm a Magic fan.)

Like everyone else I am excited to see Anthony Davis bust out and make other teams cry. I thought he was overrated when he came out of college and have been eating crow since.

And it will warm my heart to see a healthy OKC come back and crush teams left and right. I missed a healthy Kevin Durant last season, it'll be nice to have him back in the Association along with Paul George.

And of course LeBron.

Let's basketball!

Go suns.

@hobosunday: I'm actually looking forward to your Magic, too. We loved Scott Skiles in Chicago and I anticipate him making Orlando a lot better. And Oladipo seems to have a ton of potential.

lol Steph Curry continues to destroy everything.

Also, tried out the league pass broadband free trial tonight. Did not run great. Had a shit ton of trouble even getting the stream to start. Hopefully tomorrow's streams are a bit better.

I was totally stunned to hear so many people say they can't wait for Anthony Davis to break out. You know what he did last season right? I am a Pels fan so I've been watching him for awhile so maybe I was just ahead of the curve. Is that just it? Did he really have that little national exposure so most people are now just seeing his amazing skill set and other-worldliness?

I know he is struggling right now, but I don't expect this to be the norm. I think it's nerves and trying to do too much. I wouldn't be surprised to see him come out for the second half like the AD Destroyer of Worlds we expected. GO PELS!!!!!

@mattadord: I remember some commercial with him and Harden a while back, where less people recognized AD than Harden's beard. Didn't know a damn thing about him at the time.

Until USA Basketball happened. Put on some damn good performances and I started to pay attention. He's just got such a varied skill set for a big dude. My understanding is he played point guard before getting a crazy growth spurt, right? So he has a perspective on the game that other big men might lack. The sky's the limit for that guy.

@csl316: Wow that's crazy. I just feel like being the number one overall pick gets you more notoriety than that. Well I'm glad he is getting the respect now.

Yeah he grew something like eight inches to a foot in a summer and then a couple more the next summer too just for good measure. You can see his guard roots when he brings up the ball or leads a fast break. It's so pretty.

Wizards are going to get a middle spot in the playoffs this year! Probably! I'm not sure they have a Plan B if #KD2DC doesn't work out, considering the only big man who's consistently good is Marcin Gortat, and every other PF/C is either fragile or bad or both. If K-Hump and Gooden can keep knocking down the occasional 3 and Sessions can score 8-10 points when subbing in, then that would be very good, because I seriously doubt this team can stop anybody when Wall, Beal and/or Gortat have to take a breather on the sidelines.

Ready for the Celtics season to start tonight! Fun team with a lot of depth. I like watching all the players we have and Stevens uses them well.

I'm with you and I think you will be happy with where the league is going as long as you aren't just looking for traditional post play. There are talented big men coming up now that have integrated guard skills more and more into their game. I mean, I don't think, barring a rule change, we ever go back to the same low post game of old. But I think bigs that can step out and hit shots and pass are going to really open things up and have huge impacts.

I'm a Celtics fan and even watching Kelly Olynyk, who is talented but a role player, come into a game, just completely changes things and he has a huge impact even if he isn't directly scoring. Centers that can throw alley oops or hit an open three really change things.

Guys that came in as rookies like Towns (who has guard skills in the vein of Anthony Davis) or Cauley-Stein (who can guard just about any position) just show the direction that's going.

@artisanbreads: Somehow last year, your Celtics team became fun to root for. I wanted to see them do well.

And in a couple years, I'll be cursing them to stop doing well.

Melo shot 4 of 16.

Derrick Williams had 24 off the bench.

Robin Lopez challenged a mascot to a fight mid-game.

And we won by 25.

Just like we drew it up. Let's go Knicks.

Go Bulls!

@csl316: haha I could see that happening. The team is very fun to watch now which is great. It's a fast paced system and they have good, if not great, players for it. A lot of fans are all waiting for a big trade but in the meantime the team has become pretty good and competitive.

The best thing is they have multiple Nets first round picks and that team looks awful. The basically have Nets tanking for the Celtics.

Derrick Rose's new haircut makes him look a little like Raheem from Juice...

Dubs fan since birth (no really!), excited to see how their title defense goes. I want them to stuff it down the throats of everyone saying last year was a fluke or they got lucky.

The Wiz somehow eeked out a victory over the powerhouse known as...Orlando? Seriously? From what I saw of that game, neither team really wanted to win, bricking enough threes to build a house. Wall still ballin though.

@fredchuckdave: If you've watched the few games they've had, your Pistons team is looking pretty solid and the offense seems to have freed up now.

Also they beat Atlanta...on the road...in a blowout.

Glad the Toronto Raptors won last night, though they played awful for most of the game. I'm surprised we won.

I hope the new changes made this year prove to be more positive than negative. The Raptors making the post season two years running was great for the city.

Also, I saw Bruno Caboclo right by where I work while I was going for a quick walk. Took a pic with him, he must have spread my luck to the rest of the team.

@gaspower: Oh no I might have to pay attention, curses. Andre Drummond seems pretty good. Now we just need to resurrect Chauncey Billups.

@hippie_genocide: I've always wondered how that whole "they were lucky because this and this" conversation started coming up. It's stupid. They won and that's that.

Also the team looks like they are in mid-season form from that opener. There is literally no way to stop Stephen Curry from shooting a three ball unless you play "hand-cuff" defense on him and hope he misses.

@gaspower: The luck stuff came from a Grantland interview with Doc Rivers where he said the Warriors were lucky that they didn't have to play the Spurs or the Clippers on the way to the finals. That quote was then blown out of proportion on other ESPN affiliates and mutated through the sports industrial complex into the stupid "Golden State just got lucky!" narrative that exists today. Man that is a stupid narrative. Golden State scorched the Earth last year. They were the best team in the league all season long and it wasn't particularly close.

@fredchuckdave:You have to pay attention because if you don't, Stan VanGundy is coming for you

Even though we lost, watching the Lakers this year is going to be infinitely more enjoyable than last year (Last year was miserable).

• Clarkson continues to look good
• Randle just needs to finish at the rim at a higher rate (My god, his right hand -.-), otherwise he looked solid
• Russel didn't seem to be involved nearly enough. His stats look ugly but he had some beautiful passes that people just weren't prepared for or they just missed the open shot. Also, he has a smooth shooting stroke
• As expected, that bench lineup with Young/Williams is either going to make you pull your hair out or be lights out. Having Huertas playing point for the 2nd unit should hopefully keep some semblance of ball movement.
• And Kobe is back doing Kobe things.

We may not be good, but at least it seems it'll be a more enjoyable watch.

@thatpinguino: Oh that interview? I didn't expect that to be so blown out of proportion. Well, I know the Clips do have some bad blood with the Warriors so its understandable.

Very fun watching the Cavs dismantle a 50-win Grizz team last night. K-Love for one looks much more confident, and I love the additions of Richard Jefferson and Mo Williams. Jefferson has already done more in 2 games than Miller and Marion combined all last season.

It will probably take a few months for this team to gel, especially considering how they're missing two key components in Irving and Shumpert. But the Cavs are going to be a very tough out next spring should they stay healthy.

Once again this is a building year for The Blazers. T_T

Even though they did win the first game of the regular season. That's just one of many more games to come.

The Pistons are 2-0 after blowing out a 60 win team on the road and then grinding out a win against one of the better defensive teams in the league the very next day. Apparently the stifle tower isn't sturdy enough to stop Andre Drummond.

@kevin_cogneto: All he has to do is shave and they would be twins.

@monkeyman04: Hey they didn't look half bad in that game. Maybe they'll surprise some people. That's a cool Timbers/GB logo by the way!

My Bulls are taking them on tomorrow, and I honestly didn't expect much from the game. Figured I might skip it but now I gotta see these Pistons up close.

Unfortunately for the Clippers, they can't talk their way to an NBA Championship. Chris Paul better have the trainer tape up those ankles extra tight this year when they play the Dubs, lest this happen again:

The dubs are gonna have a hell of a time with Houston and the pelicans back to back with no Bogut. By the way the Clippers have won only 4 post-season seires since the team was established...

@jjweatherman: speaking of Timbers! that game almost gave me a heart attack!

Goooooo T-Wolves! KG will lead the way.

@csl316: on a random note, you gotta use "slam with the best, or jam with the rest" in the thread title at some point.

@csl316: It should be a decent game. The Pistons' roster isn't exactly stacked with talent, but the the pieces finally fit and they're well coached.

Hey everybody I have a little question/hopefully fun thing to do. As a Pels fan I've been hearing a bunch of the "world is falling" panic after our first two games. There are even a few that wonder if we should have kept Monty Williams and say he was a better coach! (For those who don't know this is a crazy idea)

So the question for everybody, what are some things either you or the fellow fans of your team are panicking about? If you want include some things your pumped about.

I'm a bit worried about the defense, but with all the injuries to PG a drop of wing defense should be expected. Also the obvious AD struggles. Though he started to get back to normal world destroying self in the second half of the Pels/Blazers game. Alright now you're up duder!

That OKC vs. Magic double overtime game may have been the first regular-season classic of the year. 48 from Westbrook and 43 from Durant, yikes. Although Orlando had a hell of a lot more balance.

And @mattadord, for the Bulls it comes down to the health for us. After several years of Derrick Rose going down, along with guys like Luol Deng, or Joakim, or even Gasol getting injured at key time, it feels like a stream of missed opportunities during the Lebron era. If you've seen Thibs work his 7 or 8 man rotations for so long because of guys going down, you just never know what to expect. Having Mike Dunleavy as the only injury right now is something we're not familiar with. So every conversation I seem to have has some variation with "well, if they're healthy..."

Oh, and defense. Hoiberg brings a whole different philosophy to offense, which is going to take some adjustment from the Thibodeau habits (hearing him yell constantly and call set plays). I'm worried that eventually they'll start to forget the defensive habits they built as the year goes on. We had a few years there where scoring 100 points was a rarity. Now it's theoretically gonna be so fast-paced that I wonder if they'll still put the effort in on defense.

Got to watch some of the Wizards game while flipping between the Caps and the World Series. On one hand, the defense needs to stop biting on the fakeouts that keep leaving a long-range shooter open, especially since the Bucks have people who can pop the three all day. On the other hand, Bradley Beal was lights-out, and Ramon Sessions, of all people, kept draining buckets.

Shoutout to Garrett Temple for finding a way to give the other team 4 points in just 7 seconds of time on the court. I didn't think that was possible, but he found a way.

Pacers fan here. I am going to the game against Utah tonight and those are always fun because the city/state has an intense love for Gordon Hayward to the point where he gets cheered about as much as the Pacers. Excited to get my first look at the new small ball Pacers and a healthy PG13. I was at his first game back last season and he just wasn't the same guy I remembered watching 2 years ago. George Hill looks like he is taking the experience from being the alpha dog last season and running with it this year. He is scoring well although he hasn't been as much of a playmaker, letting George and Ellis handle more of those duties.

Some other quick notes less than a week in:

• Drummond has looked fantastic and his play has helped make Detroit look a little like Stan Van's Orlando teams. People say you need a penetrating guard to bend defenses but having a roll man like Orlando era Howard or Drummond can be just as effective in collapsing the defense and freeing shooters. They are firing 25.3 3PT shots a game, 11th in the league. They aren't hitting enough of them but its encouraging to see they are getting the shots Van Gundy wants.
• Harden looks out of sorts and it is hurting Houston. He isn't hitting shots and hasn't been able to make up for it by getting the calls (8.5 FTA vs. 10.2 last season) he got last year. Most concerning is that he is struggling in the restricted area, through two games he his hitting just 40% of his shots in the restricted area compared to 58.2% last year. It's two games but you have to wonder if the complaints (especially directed towards Harden and the Rockets) about the league calling to many fouls and giving too many FT has changed the way they officiate him.
• Aldridge is deferring a lot through two games in San Antonio. There were questions about whether Aldridge, who was at times a ball stopper in Portland, could fit in the Spurs ecosystem of passing up good shots for great shots. It seems like he has taken it a bit too far, one number I saw was that in their win over the Nets 4 of his 5 makes came on putbacks. While they don't need him to go for 25 every night they do need him to know when to take over games and look for his shot.

Really enjoying the Kevin Love to LeBron outlets this year. I expected that to be a bigger factor last year but you can see it has really developed. It reminds me of how Wade and LeBron started to click passing in year 2 on the Heat.

@meteora3255: I don't want to blame Khloe Kardashian but Harden spending his off season with the Kardashians might have affected his game. He's too talented though so he'll probably find his game soon enough.

@csl316: To be fair, that game where they lost to Detroit was a very low scoring game and part of it had to do with defense. I mean even Niko who isn't great at defense had a moment wherein he ended up defending a small PG in Jackson and was doing very well up until the very last second where Jackson was able to get a shot off in time.

The Bulls might not look that great defensively compared to before but the people who have been known to play defense pretty well has held up, and the guys like Pau and Niko have had some lapses but are putting in the effort nonetheless. My worry is when the Bulls acquire players who aren't good at D and since Thibs isn't the coach anymore, the guys who are left would have to pick up more of the work than usual.

For the mean time, I wouldn't worry too much on the defensive front.

@csl316:

Oh don't worry I totally understand about the injuries. Having to play Nate Robinson, Ish Smith, and Toney Douglas at PG is infuriating. Now I'm not saying we would be 3-0 now if we had Norris Cole and Tyreke Evans back healthy, but I bet you we would be a much better team than what we have been putting out there.

I understand the fear of dropping on defense. I think Zach Lowe talked about it on one of his recent podcasts. Though he did mention that the Bulls had slipped defensively last season already. I think though that if Noah sticks around he will be a player coach type and help keep the defense in shape. He is always so into the game and a strong leader it seems so I think that will help a lot.

I went to the Warriors-Pels game last night. Man..... Curry is just unfair. I saw or heard a comment along the lines of the Warriors are such a fun team to watch; when they aren't playing your team. I don't remember where I saw or heard this but I agree 100%. Seeing all the "Curry is magic" or "Curry is a human highlight reel" from last night just makes me angry. Another bit of frustration was some of the defensive moves by the players, like going under the screen on Curry (WHAT!?!?), but most of it just comes from we defended him as best as anyone could and he still did that. There were a couple threes of his where the defender was right there on him and he made it anyway. Enough about Curry though the Pels actually looked good! Other than that 3rd quarter Curry outburst they played great, the second quarter specifically. I remember Curry got two quick fouls to give him three, and I thought maybe we could do this. Ryan Anderson has being playing amazing. Watching him this season is like watching a completely different player from last year. He is so much more energetic and quick. He is no longer a liability on defense, still not a great defender maybe average now, and can hit a three like it is no one's business (he hit one probably a good 3' behind the three point line in the first quarter that was a thing of beauty). Jrue Holiday has also been playing really well, though I am a bit concerned about the minute restriction seeming to increase sac game. I just hope he comes back healthy, and they aren't forcing him back because of all the other injuries to the team. Anthony Davis has seemed to get back some of his mojo, but it just seems like he doesn't know how to handle the double team yet, or at least on a consistent basis. Also it doesn't matter much if you can pass out of the double team if you're passing to Toney Douglas, Alonzo Gee, Ish Smith, or any of the meh to ugh shooters the Pelicans have to play right now. After last night's game I'm excited again (I was pretty down because of the Trail Blazers' game) there is still plenty of work to be done, especially defensively, but I see the team learning the new systems and starting to mirror the team that they were in the preseason.

I'm sorry for writing so much guys, but I love me some basketball. I just love talking about the players and teams and everything basketball. So thanks for talking basketball with me duders!

@gaspower: I expect him to find his game as well but in the West a slow start could mean the difference between hosting a first round series or being on the road because it's so competitive.

@mattadord: I was watching the NBA Starters season preview thing, and one of them said Curry is still improving. Which is a scary thought.