Predicto

I'm pretty sure he meant Steph, not Seth.

Frankly, they are terrifying - especially because they are so young. In the predictions thread, I had them as my sleeper pick in the West, but I never expected them to be this good, this fast.

He really is remarkable at it. It must be incredibly frustrating to try to defend. I've seen defenders fully giving ground and hoping for a weakside block get whistled. I've seen defenders standing still with their hands over their heads get whistled. It doesn't seem to matter what they do.

Houston will be dangerous as long as James Harden is able to take the ball at the top of the key as the shot clock is winding down, charge headfirst straight into defenders, and automatically get the call from the refs every single time. i.e. forever

Nope. I was going to post about how unguardable and valuable Dirk Nowitzki remains, even though he is very nearly as old as I am. Dude is amazing. There is no way that Dallas team should be as good as it is, with DeJuan Blair and Shawn Marion in starting roles AND with the shambling corpse of Vince Carter still getting significant minutes. As long as they have Dirk they will remain a very strong team.

You might be right, but beware of the "standout on a terrible team" syndrome when you judge talent. Oh, and Rudy Gay is terrible. Trading for Rudy Gay is the reason that the Kings will remain the same old Kings.

Well, if you have ever seen Lebron's foot, you would understand why he has problems with all shoes. One of his feet is basically deformed, with the little toe on top of the foot. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1757693-everybody-look-at-lebron-james-toes

Praise the Clippers now.

When we get Igoudala and Festus for the restivus Ezili back it will be a strong team. Right now the Dubs are kind of limping along, winning about half of the games. Depth is terrible. Anyhow, I don't gloat every victory, but yesterday's game was.... unusual.

I know. I was just funning ya.

Oh, they've been on a 7 game homestand? (just giving you grief - yes, the advantage that the Nuggets get at home altitude is ridiculous, but they are actually looking really good lately)

27 points behind the Raptors late in the 3rd quarter? No problem, Warriors. Just outscore them 42-15 in the 4th. Just take zero midrange shots (every single shot was either a 3 or a layup/dunk/bank in) Just give up zero defensive rebounds for the entire quarter Just have an offensive efficiency of 207 for the quarter (that means that they scored over two points per possession for the quarter).

Yep. They will have game after game after game against patsies like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Orlando, Detroit and, of course, the entire Atlantic Division. Both of those teams are going to rack up the wins, and get into the high 60s. Meanwhile, out west you have 2 lousy teams out of 15. Utah and Sacramento. Everyone else is pretty good or very good or extremely good. 55 wins out west will be a hell of an accomplishment. Hell, my Warriors are the 8 seed right now, and I am pretty sure they would be no worse than the 3 seed in the East if they got to play that eastern schedule.

Yeah, I disagree with all of this. I don't get the Lebron hate.

I remember when people were saying that this was the year that the East was finally stronger than the West, top to bottom. Three teams over .500, and one of them is the 8-6 Hawks. Only 2 teams in the entire West are UNDER .500.

I think someone can be both very productive and still overrated. It depends on how highly you are rated vis a vis how great you really were. See Dominique Wilkins. Or Alan Iverson. Or Pete Maravich. Or James Worthy. Or two time MVP Steve Nash. All excellent players, all overrated.

Did I mention how much I hate the Grizzlies? Everytime the Warriors play them, the Grizzlies manage to slow the game down to a crawl (and win, of course). The Dubs match up horribly against them. And other than the occassional play by Conley, they make the game boring as well. Grrrrr....

He's doing exactly what an inexperienced first year coach should be doing. He's letting his bench coaches draw up specific plays (something they have been doing for years) while he learns that part of the job. Drawing up plays during a game is only a small part of what an NBA head coach is required to do. I really think it is way too early to say that Kidd won't be a successful coach. The biggest problem with the Nets right now is that Kevin Garnett has finally turned into a pumpkin, and the rest of them are injury prone and haven't yet developed any chemistry. The NBA is a young man's game (unless you are the Ponce de Leon San Antonio Spurs).

Sure they do. Just because you play at a fast pace doesn't mean that you don't play defense. Likewise, just because you play in low scoring games doesn't mean you are good at defense - it may just mean that you are slowing the game down a ton. Defensive efficiency is the key. Night now, the Spurs are 2nd, Golden State is 4th, Phoenix is 5th, Minnesota is 6th, and OKC in 9th in defensive efficiency. That's 4 out of the top 6 in the league in the West. You are correct, however, that the Clippers don't play much defense. http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/defensiveEff/order/false

Bosh is a terrific player, but he is not wasted in Miami. He is not maximizing his stats, but they are maximizing their wins and championships and he is a huge part of what they do.

"Barkley can't run. He can't jump. He can't even hold his urine"

Just to give a specific example - who leads the Warriors in rebounding and gets all those double doubles? David Lee, the worst defender in the lineup. Who doesn't get many rebounds but completely changes the game when he is in? Andrew Bogut. When Bogut is healthy, he is a top 5 defensive center, and the Warriors become extremely dangerous. He is more important to us than David Lee by a lot even if he only gets 5 rebounds a game. Anyhow I know the discussion has moved on. Just wanted to get my shots in. by the way did you guys stay up for Inside the NBA after the Lakers/Rockets game? The banter was hysterical. You want depressing? The Warriors have lost every regular season game in San Antonio for the past 17 years. It could become 30 in a row tonight.

Because he is contesting shots and letting his forwards clean up the rebounds.