***2021-2022 NBA Season Thread***

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Because Chicago is more of a known quantity than basically anyone else in the East except Indy. You know they're going to be superbly coached, have a top three defense, and win a ton of games at home. That'll be with or without Rose, and swapping out Boozer for Gasol is an upgrade. They should flirt with 50 wins even if Rose missed the whole season again.

The only thing I could see completely derailing them is a big Noah injury.

Agreed. Boozer being gone for Gasol is huge. Plus I can't wait to see how Gibson continues to improve

[No Excuses]

Chicago has significantly improved their outside scoring with Mirotic, McDermott and Gasol. It was painful watching their offense last year. Even if Rose is mediocre, that team wins 50 games easily provided Noah stays healthy.

[Going Commando]

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizards grabbed the top seed.

I could get behind that prediction more if we weren't regular season underachievers. I think they'll actually end up having the best roster 1 through 15 in the conference and be the most dangerous team in the postseason but I don't see them putting up the best regular season record.

The problem is they're just not a great home team. We don't know why, but they're one of the rare teams that actually seems better on the road. Even if you're pretty good on the road, you're not going to be the one seed if you can't dominate at home.

Also Randy Wittman is not as good a coach as Thibs, Vogel, Spoelstra, Clifford, Budenholzer, and Casey. That will matter during the regular season.

[@DCGoldPants]

I'm reading he wants to be alpha dog in Charlotte. Good luck with that. Lance is certainly not someone you want as the primary wing scorer.

Charlotte has talent but they lack star power which is what you need to really be a 50 win team. I think Atlanta is the team out of contention from last year and replaced by Cleveland. However I still see Charlotte as no better than the 8th seed. They are a team desperate for elite talent which shows in offering mediocre players like Hayward max contracts.

 

Brooklyn is out too I think. The Knicks can probably play well enough to make the playoffs.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Chicago has significantly improved their outside scoring with Mirotic, McDermott and Gasol. It was painful watching their offense last year. Even if Rose is mediocre, that team wins 50 games easily provided Noah stays healthy.

Wait watching Hinrich dribble Into three shot clock violations a game wasn't exciting enough ?

[DCranon21]

LOL @ Bubbs thinking Wizards being a 7th seed next year. Well since my team still doesn't have a coach and won't even sniff the 7 seed out West(but received a 1st rounder for next season with the Lin trade), I think the Wizards had a good offseason. IMHO, they have probably the deepest front court in the league. You can't argue that. The Hump will give you another double/double along with Nene(when healthy) and re-signing Gortat. Wiz will be much improved next season.

[No Excuses]

Brooklyn is out too I think. The Knicks can probably play well enough to make the playoffs.

I think Deron, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez is good enough to make the playoffs. In fact I like them better than Charlotte if Deron and JJ don't underperform.

Wait watching Hinrich dribble Into three shot clock violations a game wasn't exciting enough ?

I got a headache watching Hinrich and Jimmy Butler spin in circles dribbling the ball into nowhere.

I do think Thibs needs to do better with his minutes and rotations. You can't run your players into the ground with heavy minutes while keeping up the intensity of play every night and expect to be competitive in the playoffs. I recall Jimmy Butler played an ENTIRE game against us in the playoffs. That is insane.

[CrypticVillain]

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the Wizards grabbed the top seed.

I think it's a good six teams that could legitimately get the one seed in the East. lol

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

LOL @ Bubbs thinking Wizards being a 7th seed next year. Well since my team still doesn't have a coach and won't even sniff the 7 seed out West(but received a 1st rounder for next season with the Lin trade), I think the Wizards had a good offseason. IMHO, they have probably the deepest front court in the league. You can't argue that. The Hump will give you another double/double along with Nene(when healthy) and re-signing Gortat. Wiz will be much improved next season.

I'd say the Bulls front court is deeper with Noah, Gasol, Gibson, and Mirotic

I got a headache watching Hinrich and Jimmy Butler spin in circles dribbling the ball into nowhere.

I do think Thibs needs to do better with his minutes and rotations. You can't run your players into the ground with heavy minutes while keeping up the intensity of play every night and expect to be competitive in the playoffs. I recall Jimmy Butler played an ENTIRE game against us in the playoffs. That is insane.

Oh you must have missed the playoffs the year before lol. Jimmy played 48 minutes nearly 70% of the time lol

But there is more depth now so that should be alleviated. Especially with Noah

[Sticksboi05]

Charlotte was one game worse than Washington last year. And I think Charlotte improved their team more than the Wizards did this offseason.

I have zero doubts that the Hornets finish with a better record this year.

 

The Wizards two best players are under 24, they are only going to get better.  No way Charlotte finishes higher than Washington barring catastrophic injuries knock on wood.

[Going Commando]

I'm guessing wildly, of course.

 

I think if Miami had not just lost the best player in the league, we'd be praising their off-season. There's just a lot of good basketball players up and down that roster.

 

I'm operating on the assumption that Rose comes back to something similar to the player he used to be.

 

And I think the person who is going to explode in Cleveland is Kyrie Irving. I'm basing this on nothing aside watching him in two all-star games, and am probably completely off-base. But when he played with great players, he really seemed to enjoy the challenge and elevated his game. The last three years in Cleveland, he's looked pissed off and disinterested half the time - like he was thinking "This is soooooooo beneath me." That's not the kind of player you want as your leader. But as the #2 guy playing with an All-Time great? Yes, please.

 

You know what it could be like? Robert Parish. Parish was moody and disliked in Golden State (from what I've read). Once he got the chance to play with Larry Bird every night, he became a machine.

 

Like everything else, I'm probably totally wrong here.

That's an interesting point about Kyrie. I could see him blowing up and becoming truly valuable next season too. Playing a role similar to Damian Lillard for Portland.

Cleveland is, without question, the most interesting team in the league next season. It's really hard to see a LeBron James team winning less than 50 games at this point in his career isn't it? But I think that's blinding us to their flaws. I see three main issues keeping them from being immediate contenders next year.

1.) First you get good, then you win. That's my NBA truism and I think the only way to skip that process and jump to the front of the line is to suddenly acquire three eventual first ballot HoFers in their primes like Boston and Miami did. That's not happening unless Cleveland gets Love. Next season I think Cleveland gets good. Legitimately competes night in and night out, but they're still not going to know how to win yet.

2.) Their pieces don't all fit together yet. I don't really see much of a future for Bennett or Waiters on that team. They're going to make some more moves before they settle on a core of four to five players. That flux will hold them back in the short term.

3.) They still don't have a foundation for defense. LeBron will play D. But Kyrie will always be awful and necessary to hide and Wiggins will be a rookie. He may be Paul George in year three, but he's not going to be a stud defender yet. 19 year old rookies are never good defenders.

And Thompson and Bennett will still be awful. You might be able to hide Thompson defensively at PF with an elite rim protector at C, but the Cavs certainly don't have that. Bennett is hopeless.

You can bet LeBron isn't going to kill himself on defense for a 48 win team where he'll still be carrying a lot of the offense, just to watch the D collapse around him.

The Cavs are going to probably be like Phoenix/Houston/Portland. A fun up tempo 3 point shooting team that scores a ton of points but doesn't play any defense.

If you go the Nate Silver method and try and do a WAR stat and say mega-workload MVP runner up LeBron was worth about 15 wins last season, that still only 48 wins for the Cavs. And I think it's unlikely that that LeBron James is in Cleveland next season.

Also think about what losing 15 wins means for Miami. That puts them at 39 wins. A first option Chris Bosh, an aging Luol Deng, and Josh McRoberts collectively gets them a couple more wins but not many. I think 44 wins is realistic for them.

[Gamebreaker]

I'm kind of torn between the rule.  I think that if you are old enough to be drafted or enlist to defend your country (join the military), then by all means, you should be eligible to enter the NBA draft.  Another part of me gets that not every prospect right out of high school is ready to go to the NBA.  It's a huge financial risk for owners.  

 

What I do know is that one year is stupid, it's ruined the college game with the one and dones.  Either drop the age limit to 18 yo or make it 3 years of college ball.  

 

The only problem I have with the D-league is that if there is no age limit, kids that could get an education and free ride (scholarship) would pass on that and try to get paid first in the D-League.

 

You can say what you want about the NCAA, but these kids are getting a free education for the most part.  The NCAA is full of athletes that will never make an NBA team, but some could make D-League.  So why dangle money and hope (thats probably not there) to some kid fresh out of high school and ruin his chances at an actual education that might help him land a real job if he is a D-league washout?

I don't disagree with anything but the last two paragraphs. You can still put an age limit on the D-League, or make it so you either need to be drafted in order to get onto a roster or already be a former NBA player. Regardless, the BS that these kids are getting a free education has got to stop. They are not getting a free education, they get a one-year tender for an athletic scholarship. Which is different than an academic scholarship. There is nothing stopping a university, who just hired new coach and want to bring in a whole new freshman class, from pulling a scholarship from a senior with a 3.6 gpa. That'll never happen to a strictly academic student. Furthermore, players who actually have some ambition are "encouraged" to not pursue majors that demand too much of their time....which is, basically, any degree that will land them a credible job they could support themselves with.

The NCAA is a cabal, whose agenda has gone unchecked for too long and I could give two ****s whether they were still around in a decade or not. The NBA would doing themselves a favor by developing more quality players, making the game better and potentially improving tv deals for revenue, true parity, etc,. Instead of allowing the NCAA to continue on with what they're doing just because you're getting half-trained one-and-dones.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

I'm reading he wants to be alpha dog in Charlotte. Good luck with that. Lance is certainly not someone you want as the primary wing scorer.

Charlotte has talent but they lack star power which is what you need to really be a 50 win team. I think Atlanta is the team out of contention from last year and replaced by Cleveland. However I still see Charlotte as no better than the 8th seed. They are a team desperate for elite talent which shows in offering mediocre players like Hayward max contracts.

I disagree with this, not because I'm a Hornets fan, because of the fact that we were literally one win away from being a 5 seed.  And we have improved the team from last season.  Are we contenders for the top seed, no, I don't think so at all right now.  

 

And it keeps getting brought up how great the Wizards finished the season.  Well, they did, but not as good as the Hornets did.  Last 20 games, the Wiz went 11-9 (three losses to CLT during that stretch btw) and the Hornets went 14-6.  

 

Last 10 games, Wiz went 7-3 (2 losses to CLT) and the Hornets went 8-2.  

 

Oh I know, y'all must only be looking at the final four games of the season, when you didn't have to play us head to head and went 4-0 and we finished 3-1.    

 

Seriously, I don't think the Wizards have a bad team, I think they are a very good team on the upswing, like the Hornets.  But I find it a bit humorous of all the Hornets hate when they finished the season better than the Wiz and beat them three times down the stretch as well.  But, the Wiz have a shot at the #1 seed and the Hornets are an 8th seed at best........

[Fergasun]

This Cleveland team is more talented than what Lebron had left. The eastern conference rebalancing makes it exciting to watch this year.

I know some predictions are homerpessimistic... Chicago a 1?! Wizards handled them. Gasol is injury prone and counting on a Euro to increase production?

I see Wizards/Cavs/Indy fighting for top 2 seeds, Toronto/Heat/Bulls and maybe Cats (depends on knees of big center) fighting for 4/5 seeds. Hard to predict in July.

[No Excuses]

I disagree with this, not because I'm a Hornets fan, because of the fact that we were literally one win away from being a 5 seed. And we have improved the team from last season. Are we contenders for the top seed, no, I don't think so at all right now.

And it keeps getting brought up how great the Wizards finished the season. Well, they did, but not as good as the Hornets did. Last 20 games, the Wiz went 11-9 (three losses to CLT during that stretch btw) and the Hornets went 14-6.

Last 10 games, Wiz went 7-3 (2 losses to CLT) and the Hornets went 8-2.

Oh I know, y'all must only be looking at the final four games of the season, when you didn't have to play us head to head and went 4-0 and we finished 3-1.

Seriously, I don't think the Wizards have a bad team, I think they are a very good team on the upswing, like the Hornets. But I find it a bit humorous of all the Hornets hate when they finished the season better than the Wiz and beat them three times down the stretch as well. But, the Wiz have a shot at the #1 seed and the Hornets are an 8th seed at best........

The Wizards underachieved all season. Our best players are young and were learning on the fly. Our go to scorer was a second year SG. The best player for Charlotte is an old vet who has never won a playoff game in his career. Worse, if he has plantar fasciitis, that will likely hinder him long term.

There are major differences in the ceiling of both teams. Charlotte lacks elite young talent and a deep team to really challenge the top East teams. They aren't bad, but no one is highly impressed by a team that looked pathetic in the playoffs. Even the Hawks were ten folds more competitive.

Edited July 16, 2014 by No Excuses

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I don't know why everyone assumes that Indy is a top team again? They were not a playoff team in the second half of last season and they just lost arguably their second best player for nothing and have no way to improve.

 

I also totally forgot that Brooklyn exists. My top 8 is totally wrong.

[No Excuses]

I don't know why everyone assumes that Indy is a top team again? They were not a playoff team in the second half of last season and they just lost arguably their second best player for nothing and have no way to improve.

I also totally forgot that Brooklyn exists. My top 8 is totally wrong.

If Hibbert is playing well, Indy has the best perimeter/interior defense in the East. They are going to need him to put up 17 and 10.

[Going Commando]

It's time for some guys to step it up, no doubt.  But if we can get some consistent production from PJ and Vonleh, I don't think 48-50 wins is out of the question.  Same with the Wizards.  If you look at the final seedings last year, there was a one game difference between 5/6 and 7.  

 

If the Wiz didn't get the luxury of playing Miami's bench the final game in the season and had to play them at full strength, you most likely lose that game.  We win the tie-breaker and get the 6th seed, your the 7th and have to face Miami in the first round.  That's how close it was.  

 

I don't think the Hornets are going to be pushed around and can be legitimate competition in the playoffs this upcoming season.  I'd toss them in the middle of the pack, possibly a 4 seed or a 5 seed.  Wiz the same.  I actually think it will be another fight in seeding between the Wiz and Hornets.

The thing you aren't considering is how much the Wizards underachieved in the W/L column while Charlotte, Toronto, Chicago, etc. all overachieved. The Wizards have actually been far more competitive than their records the past two years. They were a .500 team caliber team in 12/13 yet finished with 29 wins. They got off to a horrific start, going 5-28 because the Wall injury right before the season wrecked the team and they couldn't cope. After he came back they went .500.

Then last season's team really should have won 48-50 games. A team with their road record should have won around 50 games. They were competitive every single game except maybe four or five games total. They had another bad start at 2-7 and they played more OT games than any other team and had an awful OT record. They were going through the process of getting good and then figuring out to win.

Also, the playoff experiences of Washington and Charlotte are substantially different. Charlotte made the playoffs as the happy to be there team and got waxed by Miami. Washington played a "hottest team in the NBA since the AS break" Chicago as the lower seed and beat them convincingly in five games. Then they went into Indy and were a huge fourth quarter collapse away from taking a 2-0 lead on a 1 seed that had been awesome at home.

Washington is coming into this season knowing they can beat anyone in the conference and expecting to make a deep playoff run. That's a lot different than last year, where they were just hoping to make the playoffs so that everyone didn't get fired. They're going to be one of the best teams in the conference this season.

[RonArtest15]

You guys see this?  Nice touch...

 

Gold tabs on collars of past champs

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

I mean it would have better if they had one for each or like a 17x one for the Celtics

[MattFancy]

 

You guys see this?  Nice touch...

 

Gold tabs on collars of past champs

 

 

Read a story on Uni Watch about it this morning. Though, the catalog Lukas saw, it seemed pretty inconsistent. For instance, the Kings had one for their win as the Royals, but the Wizards didn't have one. Plus, if they just do the tab for all past champs, wouldn't like half the league have it? Think they need to do stars or something to show how many a team has won. Kinda like the Lakers did with the stars around center court last season.

[Gamebreaker]

If Hibbert is playing well, Indy has the best perimeter/interior defense in the East. They are going to need him to put up 17 and 10.

Can anyone with a straight face actually say Hibbert is going to do this though?

[Destino]

You guys see this? Nice touch...

Gold tabs on collars of past champs

So most teams get a gold tab? Kind of boring. I'd like a patch only for the current champs and let them add more if they win consecutive titles. If they accumulate 10 they get a free 6 inch sub.

[No Excuses]

Can anyone with a straight face actually say Hibbert is going to do this though?

Yeah no way he does. They can still be an elite team defensively, but there offense is surely going to suffer.

[Destino]

Can anyone with a straight face actually say Hibbert is going to do this though?

If they made him an offensive priority he might be able to do that next season? Maybe one after that. Maybe. Probably not though. He's got the ability to do it but he doesn't have the drive.

They did just shed a mental patient though, maybe Roy will feel less intimidated now. I'm totally grasping at straws at this point.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Destino