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NBA 2018-2019 Season

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Kawhi missed half the regular season last year and the Raptors kept on winning. And they did it without Marc Gasol in the lineup. Now they've got Gasol for an entire season and Pascal Siakam will have another season under his belt. They still have Van Vleet and Lowry. And the highly-regarded GM will add and move players if needed be in order to keep the team at the top.

As for Golden State they'll be without their superstar player in Kevin Durant, who signed elsewhere. Sure they still have Stephen Curry but he seems to start getting injured more & more as his grows older. He's still a superstar player but without Durant in the lineup the Warriors will have a tough road ahead if they want to repeat as Conference champs.

p.s. I'm not afraid of the Clippers even with Kawai and George in their lineup. They're still the Clippers, after all.


I've already placed my bet that GS returns to the finals again, as well as Curry taking MVP this year. He has made concessions for KD for the last 3 yrs and meanwhile became even more accurate. While it is true that he is getting injured more, they are not serious injuries. On the flip side, his strength has vastly improved and he is right in his peak year.

The one catch here is D'Angelo - if he accepts his role, and fully buys in to GS's system, every team should be frightened as hell come playoffs. The speed that that team may end up playing at should be astounding. WC Stein is also very very quick and he showed some great potential last year - he also has a healthy amount of anger in him - I think he is going to make some serious noise this year. The two main if's for GS are if D'Angelo decides to listen (and can actually play that fast), and if the new kids can be good defensively.

Keep in mind that no one really caught up with, nor really figured them out in their two finals losses - they were both primarily due to serious injuries (and yes I know that they were also fortunate themselves in the same way). But just look at their winning percentage in the last 5 yrs - it is astounding, and no one else is even close.

Anyway, I'm hyped for the season - lots of drama and story lines - should be fun.
 

No_Church_InThe_Wild

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May 31, 2014
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^^^^
Toronto still has a good team . But what are their chances of repeating? I’m guessing slim to none . Now it’s the TML turn .

Parity will make the NBA much more interesting , definitely more fan interest which is great .
So many teams contending in the WEST , from one to nine they could all win it . Denver and Utah shouldn’t be overlooked as for the Lakers it remains to be seen, but as usual the media is hyping them up . I like Houston with the two MVP ‘ s reuniting but it’s gonna be tough with what’s happening in California. Even when they had KD they still where not able to win a championship ,but you never know.
 

EagerBeaver

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Although I agree that virtually any team 1-8 in the West can win, I am not bullish on the Rockets' chances. I would give Golden State a much better chance of winning than Houston, due to the shooting advantage provided by the Splash Brothers plus Russell. In KD's last year in OKC he and Westbrook lost a 7 game series to Golden State, and the difference in that series was the great shooting of the Splash Brothers against the terrible shooting of Westbrook (although Durant did not play well in the last 2 games of that series either). Westbrook is a career 30.8% 3 point shooter - which is utterly atrocious for a starting NBA guard - and last year he shot 29%, his worst in a full season. The NBA is a 3 point shooting league and you have to have the guys who are taking those shots down the stretch be high % shooters. James Harden is capable of making 3s but he does not make high percentages. He is a career 36.5% 3 point shooter, whereas Curry is career 43.6% and Thompson is career 41.9%. That is why they are the Splash Brothers and Harden-Westbrook are the Clank Brothers. Harden does have the best stepback moves to create space that I have ever seen, but you want your stars taking high% shots in the critical moments of games and he is not high% on the 3. So I am not bullish on Houston, I am higher on LAC, Denver, Portland, Golden State and a little less so with Utah and LAL.

Don't forget that Doc Rivers of LAC is a proven championship coach. Last year he led one of the the most overachieving teams in the NBA. Frankie Vogel has been a good coach in the league, but he is unproven at handling high end superstar talent. I am not crazy about LAL roster, and having to rely on guys like Dwight Howard who, apart from being washed up, has been a cancer in every lockerroom to which he belonged. He is a stopgap, cheap replacement for the injured and suspended DeMarcus Cousins, who probably will not play this season. LAL looks to me like a playoff team which gets knocked out in West semis or finals.
 

No_Church_InThe_Wild

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^^
The Splash brothers vs the Clank brothers , yup lol
I pretty much agree on most everything written above . As for that particular series if I’m not mistaken OKC had a stranglehold right up until GS started tightening the screws on defence and started making all the shots. And as for Harden when Houston was facing GS he’s three point shooting was horrendous . I think Houston in that series broke some kind of record for a team missing the most consecutive threes . Still when those two or ON they are pretty much unstoppable. Unfortunately they will now both be coached by Mike D’Antoni which in my opinion sucks moose balls .

Vogel is a good coach but your right that not everyone can coach superstars. And as for Dwight I always thought that he was overrated but
he will help to plug in some holes with DC getting injured. With LJ and AD no way they are missing the playoffs again.
Doc Rivers is a players coach albeit a big complainer . After letting go Blake Griffin the Clippers will once again have another superstar in Kawhi Leonard. I like Paul George even though he is not the same player he used to be with the Pacers ,,, and I really love KL . Finally a star player that lets he’s play do all the talking instead of showboating and doing the usual promoting that we are all used to seeing in that league . A good example for all the young kids watching the NBA on how to properly play the game .
 

jalimon

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I was happy to see the owner of Houston tweet is support for Hong Kong population. Hopefully the NBA stand strong on this. If these millionaires and billionaires do not stand against these Chinese communist who will??

On all Chinese search engine right now search for Houston Rockets do not return any results.... These Chinese are weird fuckers...
 

GaryH

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Dec 1, 2014
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I think you misunderstood this story. The owner of the Houston team did not tweet support for the Hong Kong demonstrators, the general manager did. He was very quickly forced to apologize. In fact the Houston owner denounced the tweet and his general manager. The general manager may now lose his job and career because of this.

https://news.yahoo.com/china-suspen...support-for-hong-kong-protests-171331330.html

The Brooklyn Nets owner also denounced the tweet and general manager.

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/...0191007-rwkime5gofejbhgwyaearwwor4-story.html

In Sports Illustrated two weeks ago
JJ Redick: "The NBA is a Woke League. It's at the forefront of a lot of things."
Chris Ballard :" Once upon a time, making bank was the league's aspirational currency - Republicans buy shoes too, as MJ once noted. Now, awareness and its close partner, righteousness, rule the day."

George Young, NY Giants GM, 30 years ago: "When they say it's not about the money, it's about the money."
South Park creators: "Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy.”
 

EagerBeaver

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Daryl Morey is one of the best GMs in the NBA and I think it’s highly unlikely he will be fired by the Rockets. It would signal the end of freedom of speech.
 

No_Church_InThe_Wild

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Freedom of speech? Yea sure.... ask Colin Kaepernick how that turned out
Never say or do anything that will hurt the NBA ‘s bottom line or any league for that matter . Seems like this time around all the players got the memo .

And as for Kerr maybe he should stick to coaching basketball from now on . He got his chance to speak up but he chose the cowards way out . He made Trump look good for criticizing and mocking him
 

jalimon

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It is said it would cost the NBA a bit more then a billion dollar to loose the Chinese market. Maybe 2.

Has anyone calculated what the complete inclusion of Hong Kong to China would cost to american and european allies? Trillions...

Cheeres,
 

No_Church_InThe_Wild

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I read somewhere that Hong Kong real estate stocks lost around 50 billion because of the protests. I also heard that Hong Kong has twice the amount of Billionaires that Canada has . They must be sweating bullets right now with everything that’s going on . No matter how rich some of these folks are they constantly live in fear of the Chinese government .

I do however admire the Hong Kongers spirit of trying to preserve their Democracy , but let’s be honest their future was settled a long time ago . Hong Kong is controlled by China and they will be at their mercy from now on . Things could have been worse , just saying ,,, they are still by far very privileged compared to the rest of China .

P.s Very much agree Jalimon ,,, the one billion that the NBA stands to lose is peanuts compared to the billions and trillions at stake . With out a doubt there is a lot of wealth concentrated in that City . But “ laissez fair “ is no more .
 

jalimon

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NoChurch correct if things were just ok so far it's because Hong Kong is so rich. Constantly in the top 3 city in the world with the most Billionnaires (#2 this year). But as you said no matter how rich China will put a stronghold on this island so it becomes under their full power. And believe me the Chinese are completely crazy. Asians drives by honor not by honesty... That's why they copy everything and do not respect intellectual property.

I would have hope the NBA would have stand their ground... They may be tall men but we now see how small they are.

Cheers,
 

EagerBeaver

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Adam Silver In Tense Meeting With Lakers, Nets Players

This due to NBA players taking questions from local Chinese reporters they thought Silver should be answering. This was bad media prep by the NBA and I don't blame the players one bit for being angry:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...r-had-tense-meeting-lakers-nets-players-china

The article suggests that one player demanded to know what would have happened if a player posted on his Twitter what Darryl Morey did. Not discussed is how Silver responded to that question.
 
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