The 2018-19 NBA Thread

We can breathe easy one again. Basketball season is upon us and with it the promise of untold possibilities. Will Jimmy Butler rip the Timberwolves apart from the inside? How long until you're used to seeing LeBron in a Lakers uniform? Will Ben Simmons even attempt a three?

All the basketball talk one could want: wild trade proposals, homer predictions, injury and coaching rants, and above all, thoughtful discourse.

• NBA.com
• Bleacher Report
• Basketball Reference

I know it’s gonna be a long season and they will not be doing anything this year but I am excited for where the Knicks are.

This is the first time in many many years where they actually have a plan and a young core group of players. Looking forward to seeing them progress.

Another year of wondering why Charles Barkley is on TV.

Hope the Warriors bring a final championship to Oakland before they move across the bay.

Go Suns

While not a true dunk, this is my early contender for dunk of the year. I mean who else could take off outside the paint and posterizes Embiid like that?

The Wizards: too good to tank, too bad to get past the second round, too loaded with max contracts to go build momentum in either direction.

The best time of the year. Baseball playoffs, football is in full swing and actually good this year and the best part of the basketball season is upon us because the playoffs don't matter

The Knicks will almost surely be the worst team in the NBA this year though Sacramento will give them a run for their money. But unlike most years where they enter the year with the idea of competing and quickly fall on their faces, they seem to actually have a plan for the future. There’s still some Phil Jackson stink left on this team that needs to be washed away (Hardaway Jr.’s contract, I’m looking at you) but there seems to be a relatively exciting young core to build around. Excited for Knox, Mitchell Robinson and year two of Frank. If Porzingis plays this year, that’s nice but him sitting out the whole year wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

@patoday: Just in general, the Celtics looks so scary this year. An off-night for both Kyrie and Hayward and they still blow out the Sixers by almost twenty points. Wow wow wow.

The Pistons: too mediocre to tank, too mediocre to get past first round, too loaded with shitty contracts to go build momentum in either direction.

I look forward to our interconference battles to see who gets that prestigious sixth seed in the playoffs.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Pacers. They were a few games from home court in the first round last year and Tyreke Evans is the perfect compliment to Oladipo (on offense at least). I'm hopeful Myles Turner has a mini leap in him and am also high on Sabonis. I'm excited at some of the lineup options with Oladipo at the 1.

Oladipo has to prove last year wasn't a fluke, but his attitude and dedication to hard work make me feel good about that. They also won't be able to sneak up on teams this year and have to have a better plan when teams throw hard doubles at Oladipo but they traded Lance Stephenson and an often injured Glenn Robinson for Evans and McDermott which are upgrades on both guys.

I'm not as high on Utah as a lot of people are. I've seen some prejections peg them as the 3 seed in the west and around 55 wins and that just seems to high. I don't have faith that Rubio will maintain his career year as a shooter and I still don't think they have enough help around Mitchell on offense. Defense will be fierce but the Rockets almost made Gobert unplayable in last seasons playoffs. I still have the Thunder ahead of them and could even see a healthy Pelicans team snag a top four seed as well.

Also, @patoday, this is for you. Just because of the Kawhi gif. You've probably already seen this.

@meteora3255: Don't sleep on my boi Ingles

Go Bulls! Go somewhere, please...

@inevpatoria: I haven't seen that before, that's hilarious. Honest question, do you think he's ever laughed in his life before attempting that laugh?

Knicks looked good tonight! Granted it was against a relatively bad team in the Hawks, but I loved the way they played. Good defense and ran the court well. At the very least Fizdale will make this team competitive.

There's only 1 thing im sure of, Lebron will go nuts !!

cancel the season, it was a mistake

Booker is nuts.

One name to watch out for in the rookie race: Allonzo Trier.

Guy is a absolute steal. Excited to watch our young core of Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Nitty and Trier this season!

Between LeBron and Rondo the Lakers should be fun to watch this season. LeBron was a monster on the boards last night with 12 rebounds, the next closest players were Nurkic with 9 and JaVale McGee with 8.

Got to see the Wizards season opener last night. There were a few times where the Heat just outright flopped on the court and drew fouls, but the Wizards still appear to be a work in progress. Oubre is kinda trash now, Mahinmi didn't live up to his starter's billing, Porter barely got the ball, and everyone forgot how to make a 3-pointer. At least Jeff Green looked good, I guess?

Man anyone see that Chris Paul - Rondo fight? I'm excited for the rest of the Lakers-Rockets games this season, gonna be a lot of one-sided games with plenty of bad blood. Also, I didn't see Rondo spitting on Chris Paul, only Paul pushing Rondo in the nose, but wouldn't put 'spitting in someones face' past Rondo.

@patoday: I hadn't seen it until this morning. Can't see anything that looks like Rondo spitting, but it was a bit telling that LeBron was talking to Paul rather than the guys on his own team.

Pacers bench has looked good. McDermott is raining fire from deep, Tyreke has provided scoring and playmaking and Sabonis has been a double-double threat off the bench. If Bogdanovic makes some shots against Milwaukee (0-7 that game) its possible they start 3-0. Oladipo looks like he is going to pick up where he left off last year as well.

There is enhanced video out there now of Rondo clearly spitting at Paul, suspensions all around. Ingram got 4 games which is really lenient, Rondo got 3 and CP3 got 2 which are both fair.

So happy the NBA is back

Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia for Dario Saric, Robert Covington and other spare parts. I feel like the 76ers gave up a lot to get a star that doesn't really fit. Butler is a shaky jump shooter and is at his best with the ball in his hands which also describes Simmons and Embiid.

I feel bad for Covington. He was undrafted and turned himself into a legit multi-positional defender and ace 3 point shooter and worked his ass off to earn a starting spot on a Finals contender. Now he will be lucky if he makes the playoffs.

Toronto is looking really good.

@billmcneal: Agreed. Kawhi is quite healthy this season

Rooting for the Raptors, Celtics, and 76ers to get as good as they can if that helps prevent GSW from winning the championship again. No one in the west has a shot unless Rockets or Lakers make some moves.

Are there basketball fans here? Wow! I'm surprised. I've been playing basketball for 5 years, it's my hobby

Will the Lakers make the playoffs this year?

@billmcneal: let's hope not

Who can challenge Golden State in the West?

@billmcneal: I've been watching the Denver Nuggets play and they remind me of the western conference version of the Celtics from past years. Besides just having I.T on their team, they're a young talented team, with scorers (Murray and Harris) but play unselfish to the point you honestly could say they do not a definitive "alpha dominate star" on their team. Sure Jokic is probably their best skilled player on their team but he's one built on unselfishness which has trickled down to the rest of the team. They have a good coach in Malone, and if Michael Porter Jr. can get to a point where he can play you better watch out.

So answer, this year my pick would be the NUGGS, but depending on what happens with Durant and Klay during the offseason I can easily imagine the Nuggets usurping the Warriors as the best team in the West.