2014-2015 NBA Season Thread

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'm no big NBA fan...but personally to me the real end of the Lakers as a competitive team was where Stern helped his pal Sterling with the Clippers get Chris Paul. The league was watching the Hornets at the time and basically voided a trade they made and instead accepted one from the Clippers. My friends who are Laker fans hate Stern and how his friendship with Sterling seemed to impact his judgement. (its been brought up before by me...Stern for years looked the other way while Sterling did horrible **** as owner to employees and more)

[Hiromi]

"Trying to think about the rest of the team over myself or my scoring is something that I never really had to do before"
-J.R. Smith

This may be the best unintentionally hilarious quote I've ever seen from a pro athlete

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

He followed it up with some remarks about the pipe.

[JaggedFel]

San Antonio has never repeated before so them not repeating is not a bold prediction

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I would call the Sixers breaking their 26 game losing streak from last season bold, but, in truth, it isn't.

[Hiromi]

I'm no big NBA fan...but personally to me the real end of the Lakers as a competitive team was where Stern helped his pal Sterling with the Clippers get Chris Paul. The league was watching the Hornets at the time and basically voided a trade they made and instead accepted one from the Clippers. My friends who are Laker fans hate Stern and how his friendship with Sterling seemed to impact his judgement. (its been brought up before by me...Stern for years looked the other way while Sterling did horrible **** as owner to employees and more)

I really don't feel like getting into this yet again but the Clippers deal was widely considered the better one for the Hornets/Pelicans while the Lakers deal was viewed as another Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown windfall, so I don't have a problem with Stern acting perfectly within his rights as the representative of the league, who were the intern owners of the Hornets at the time, and vetoing a trade that he felt wasn't in the teams best interest. They got Eric Gordon, a starter they still use who I believe had a good contract at the time(and the Hornets promptly overpaid), and an unprotected first round draft pick from Minnesota that turned into the number 10 overall pick as well as 10 million in cap space.

With the Lakers deal they would have gotten Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, and Kevin martin, all on awful contracts(and old, which is counterproductive to a rebuilding team), Goran Dragic who was not considered the player he is now at the time and who was an unrestricted free agent the next year, and the Knicks first round pick(back when they were considered a top 3 East seed).

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

San Antonio has never repeated before so them not repeating is not a bold prediction

They cannot repeat cause the magical God of the narative says so?

[Hiromi]

More that the West has been a meat grinder for pretty much the entire time they've been good and it's really hard to make it out. People seem to be trying real hard to forget how many breaks they needed to just make the Finals last year.

[daBronzeBomma]

San Antonio has never repeated before so them not repeating is not a bold prediction

Fair enough, although right now I believe there is a widespread belief that San Antonio are the favorites to win the NBA champion this upcoming season.

Fine, not BOLD enough for ya? How 'bout this:

At the end of the 2014-2015 season, Brooklyn's Kevin Garnett (who would be wrapping up his 20th! season), San Antonio's Tim Duncan (same age as KG, not as many seasons due to 4 years of college ball), and Washington D.C'.s Paul Pierce will ALL officially retire from the NBA as active players.

Also, Steve Nash will officially retire at the end (but ONLY at the very end) of the remainder of his guaranteed contract in April 2015 (or June 2015 if he gets traded for next to nothing to a contender before the trade deadline).

Also, Manu Ginobili may join the growing throng of the guys who came up in the '90s (Manu came to the NBA in 2002, but had an international career in the '90s) after this season. Vince Carter is a threat to retire as well. Is Elton Brand still in the league?

I think only Kobe and Dirk are the only two superstars from that '90s player generation who will stick around past this season for the 2015-2016 season.

[byc]

This is my fantasy team with some others. I haven't done a fantasy basketball league in over a decade, so it's almost new again.

6 John Wall, Wsh PG
27 Andre Drummond, Det C
38 Nikola Vucevic, Orl C
59 Lance Stephenson, Cha SG
70 Luol Deng, Mia SF
91 Bradley Beal*, Wsh SG
102 Taj Gibson, Chi PF
123 Ersan Ilyasova, Mil PF
134 Wilson Chandler, Den SF
155 Tim Hardaway Jr., NY SG
166 Jarrett Jack, Bkn PG
187 Tiago Splitter, SA PF

16 team league, weekly head-to-head.
Positions:
PG
SG
G
SF
PF
F
C
Util
Util
Bench
Bench
Bench
IR

scoring:
Points (PTS)
Blocks (BLK)
Steals (STL)
Assists (AST)
Rebounds (REB)
Turnovers (TO)
Three Pointers Made (3PM)
Field Goal Percentage (FG%)
Free Throw Percentage (FT%)

[byc]

Agree with Kidd over Nash (tho neither was close to the force of nature A.I. was OFF the court).

As for the 2003 Season MVP, the answer to whom else it should have go to is the same answer to the question on this Sports Illustrated cover from June 2003:



Answer: No One.

2003 was Tim Duncan's peak year as an athlete. He rightfully deserved that Season MVP (and Finals MVP) and it wasn't close.

Now, Jason Kidd should have gotten more consideration the previous year's award: the 2002 Season MVP could have gone to Kidd.

That was the season he was traded to the New Jersey Nets from the Phoenix Suns and promptly turned the Nets into a title contender that same year.

For the original Nash vs AI: I'd take AI's career over Nash. If I have to go ringless, at least let me get to the Finals.

I thought I had the years correctly the first time...I thought it looked funny that Kidd had the better year in 01-02.

Regardless, Kidd should have won 1 of those MVPs. Just as Iverson wasn't really the best that year when he won; everybody knew it was Shaq.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

More that the West has been a meat grinder for pretty much the entire time they've been good and it's really hard to make it out. People seem to be trying real hard to forget how many breaks they needed to just make the Finals last year.

The only lucky break they got was the Ibaka injury. They destroyed the Mavs in game 7.

[byc]

The only lucky break they got was the Ibaka injury. They destroyed the Mavs in game 7.

Is this a troll post?

The overall number 1 destroyed the number 8 at home. lol?

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Is this a troll post?

The overall number 1 destroyed the number 8 at home. lol?

The West is deep, Parker was injured and Carlsy is one heck of a coach.

[Hiromi]

The only lucky break they got was the Ibaka injury. They destroyed the Mavs in game 7.

And they got to a game 7 largely because Dejuan Blair was suspended for game 5 and Dirk had a very poor series in general

Then they got a much more favorable matchup in Portland for the next round instead of Houston who had given them problems all season long

and yes the Ibaka injury