Nba 2016-2017 Season! Let's Get It On!

[ppdd]

thank you KG!

[The Cunning Linguist]

Bale sino na lang player drafted from the 90's ang nasa NBA pa rin this coming season bukod kay Paul Pierce? Wala na e no? Unless mag balik talaga si Ray Allen

[The Cunning Linguist]

Si Andre Miller free agent drafted 1999 pero free agent, at mukhang wala na kukuha sa kaniya. Si JAson Terry pa pala drafted din ng 1999. So 2 na lang sila ni pierce

[calvinzero]

Si Andre Miller free agent drafted 1999 pero free agent, at mukhang wala na kukuha sa kaniya. Si JAson Terry pa pala drafted din ng 1999. So 2 na lang sila ni pierce

Most likely, magreretire na din si Miller. He is 40+ of age, right?

[ryujin6190]

Thank you, KG! #BigTicketOut

[lestah08]

lets go spurs!! khit wla n si duncan

[EL_PY]

Maka 30000 career points si dirk this season pwede na. I think 600+ n lang hinahabol nya.

[Guiness]

Ranking the NBA head coaches (30-21)

October 3, 2016- by Mika Honkasalo

 

Over the past few years, the NBA game has changed at a really high pace. From the increased emphasis on moving away from non-restricted area paint attempts and mid-range shots to innovations in the way teams execute switches and mix zone concepts into their man-to-man defense, it takes a really smart head coach to stay ahead of all developments.

 

To the credit of many organizations and head coaches, they’ve managed to adapt well into the modern game. The best example is Gregg Popovich, who has transformed his offense in a decade three times already; first a post-up oriented style with Tim Duncan as the center, and then a constant-motion offense around Tony Parker running endless pick-and-rolls, to what the Spurs have now with LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard – a kind of mix between Popovich’s former styles. Mike D’Antoni brought many of the spread pick-and-roll concepts we see today into the NBA, while Tom Thibodeau re-created defenses with an emphasis on overloading the strong side, limiting help and chasing weakside shooters away from the three-point line.

 

However, it hasn’t been all roses. For the 2016-17 season, 11 new head coaches were hired. With the pressure to find the next Brad Stevens, a young coach who immediately makes a positive impact, and an unprecedented scrutiny on lineup decisions, end-of-game plays and success versus expectations, there hasn’t been any patience by most organizations to let their new head coaches make mistakes and learn on the job over multiple years. There’s tremendous value in supporting a coach like Erik Spoelstra through tough times, and he’s become a better coach for it.

 

This three-part series ranking current NBA head coaches shouldn’t be considered a list of who’s the best coach, but more about where they currently stand in terms of what positive concepts they’ve brought (and are expected to in the short term) to their respective teams. As such, most new hires tend to be closer to the bottom, as it’s tough to judge how their past work translates over into head coaching.

 

30. Earl Watson (Phoenix)

Watson was hired after Jeff Hornacek was fired from the Suns’ head coaching position at the start of February, when the team had visibly quit on Hornacek. By most accounts, Watson has been well-liked by his players, but the on-court production at the end of the year remained terrible.

 

The Suns went 9-24 under Watson, and after the All-Star break the team was outscored by 8.2 points per 100 possessions, ranked 28th and only a hair better than the Lakers and Sixers. Both the offense and defense got worse, and starting Alex Len and Tyson Chandler together was either tanking taken to the extreme or a bad decision on Watson’s part. With the two together on the court, the Suns were outscored by 11.2 points per 100 possessions.

It seemed like Watson was trying to win, as the 21-year-old Archie Goodwin was largely removed from the rotation by the end of the year in favor of Ronnie Price. And all the while PJ Tucker was getting worked to death with a near 40-minute a night workload.

 

29. Fred Hoiberg (Chicago)

Hoiberg was supposed to bring a newfound sense of ball movement and spacing to the Bulls, but Chicago’s season ended up in disappointment. Hoiberg’s offense failed to pass every metric that’s supposed to describe a modern NBA offense. The Bulls had the third highest percentage of their points come from the mid-range, and they ranked fourth to last in fast-break points. All the while being in the Bottom 10 in free-throw rate and having the lowest field goal percentage in the paint.

Now, not every offense has to be a threes-and-free-throws masterpiece, but it’s impossible to have a good offense if you don’t do anything efficiently. In fact, the Bulls were lucky to win 42 games last season, considering every single player in their rotation (except for Nikola Mirotic) had a negative net rating on the court.

 

Both Dwyane Wade and, in particular, Rajon Rondo seem like terrible fits for Hoiberg’s offense. Wade is a smart cutter and can work both on and off the ball, but Rondo does literally nothing if he’s not handling the ball. Rondo also does whatever he wants defensively, which isn’t going to help a defense that was just middle-of-the-pack last season.

Chicago added big names during the offseason and the team, internally at the very least, expects to be quite good. Fighting for 50 wins is probably quite unrealistic for this Bulls roster, however, and Hoiberg may end up being the fall guy.

 

28. David Fizdale (Memphis)

For the past few years, Fizdale has been one of the most highly thought of assistant coaches in the NBA. As a first-year head coach, he has a lot to prove and not an easy situation around him, as Dave Joerger did a solid job with the Grizzlies and the roster is aging.

Chandler Parsons should be a perfect fit on the roster, and the Grizzlies were in desperate need of his shooting, ballhandling and passing. But with injuries to Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, plus an aging Zach Randolph who is probably not a starting-quality player anymore, the challenge to stay competitive in the West is a tough one.

 

While it’s hard to gauge what type of coach Fizdale will be, he has talked about having the team play at a faster tempo, a mistake Joerger made with the Grizzlies but one he was able to quickly correct. We’ll see if Fizdale has better luck.

 

27. Nate McMillan (Indiana)

Under Frank Vogel, the Pacers consistently ranked at the top of the NBA in defensive efficiency, including being third last season allowing just 100.2 points per 100 possessions – an impressive feat considering Vogel managed it first with Roy Hibbert and David West, and then again with Myles Turner and Ian Mahinmi.

 

With the additions of Jeff Teague and Al Jefferson to the roster, the Pacers have two new players who are clearly minus defenders into their rotation, though their third big free agency addition, Thaddeus Young, is quite good.

 

McMillan faces multiple challenges. The first is keeping the defense elite, and the second is finding ways to keep spacing and efficiency at a reasonable level. The offensive talent looks good on paper since the Pacers have an abundance of players who can score 16-18 points per game in the right role, but the problem is few have actually been efficient… and most need the ball to succeed.

 

George Hill was a wonderful fit next to Paul George since he was able to play off the ball, guard multiple positions and run an efficient pick-and-roll if required. Teague isn’t the shooter Hill is (Teague shot 40 percent from three last season, but below 30 percent on long two-pointers, and has never been above average before) and not nearly as good as a defender. Young has never developed a consistent three-pointer and has struggled to be an average player in shooting efficiency his entire career. Jefferson never gets to the free-throw line and relies almost exclusively on hook shots.

 

In the past, McMillan has had a reputation as a defensive coach, but in his 10 seasons as a head coach in the NBA his teams have never ranked in the Top 10 in defensive efficiency. For years, the Pacers have talked about increasing their pace of play, but McMillan’s teams have consistently been among the slowest in the league – and during a time from the early 2000’s to 2012 with the Blazers, when there was a much smaller emphasis on pace.

 

26. Brett Brown (Philadelphia)

It’s a pretty strange thing, but after three years as a head coach in the NBA Brown’s grade remains largely incomplete. We have almost no idea what type of coach he is, although the Sixers have focused on analytically-friendly traits in their offense and defense, such as chasing steals and high three-point rates (too bad no one on the roster has been able to make them). With Sam Hinkie out and Bryan Colangelo in, we’ll see if those tendencies change.

 

It’s easy to fall in love with the narrative that Brown is a genius coach and a great mentor for young guys, but since there are so many talented head coaches in the NBA it’s hard to rank Brown higher at this point.

 

For next year, the challenge Brown is going to face is managing the frontline rotation. The Sixers have three players who are at their best at center – Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. And both Ben Simmons (when he returns from injury) and Dario Saric should play power forward in the modern NBA. There’s a chance Noel gets traded soon, but even so the frontline remains relatively crowded.

 

Brown will have lots of opportunities to experiment here – Simmons at point guard, looking for the right combination where Saric can play small forward and finding ways to play Embiid, Noel and Okafor together. Some variations will work and others won’t, but keeping all the young guys happy and motivated to develop remains the first priority.

 

25. Alvin Gentry (New Orleans)

The hiring of Gentry was considered a coup by NBA analysts in the summer of 2015, but since then no one has had his stock fall faster.

 

Injuries were a big problem all year for the Pelicans, but even so what remains most disappointing was how bad the Pelicans played defensively. Anthony Davis seemed to take a step back and was constantly either not engaged or late on rotations. Omer Asik is probably the worst offensive player in the league, but with Asik and Davis together on the court the Pelicans should have been able to sniff decency on defense. For the season, the Pelicans ranked 28th in defensive efficiency allowing 107.3 points per 100 possessions and allowed opponents to shoot 63.7 percent in the restricted area.

 

Moving Davis more to the perimeter and elbows was supposed to help Davis stretch his shooting out to the three-point line and extend his abilities as a passer. Davis is a great player, but he hasn’t quite taken the next step as a playmaker so that he can really be the offensive hub. Instead, Davis’ efficiency took a dip and just 29.9 percent of his attempts came from within three feet of the basket, compared to 37.6 percent in the previous years, per Basketball-Reference.com.

 

New Orleans brought in some interesting additions during the offseason. Solomon Hill, Langston Galloway and E’Twaun Moore can all potentially switch and guard multiple positions around Davis, and for Gentry, his main challenge will be getting the defense to an acceptable level. The offense should always be quite good with Davis at center, but the key number to follow with him will be his assists (only at 1.8 per game for his career).

 

24. Jason Kidd (Milwaukee)

Kidd’s three-year coaching career has been defined by extreme swings. He started off terribly with Brooklyn, but finished strong after Brook Lopez was injured for the season and Kevin Garnett moved to center.

 

In Kidd’s first year with the Bucks, the team outperformed expectations tremendously. Kidd’s defense built upon doubling and using length and athleticism in the passing lanes led the Bucks to the second best defensive efficiency in the NBA.

 

Sticking Greg Monroe and Jabari Parker on the frontline completely torpedoed the defense. Monroe just wasn’t a great fit with his lumbering style of play and Parker, like most rookies, was completely lost on virtually every possession. Khris Middleton also took a real step back defensively.

 

The Bucks ranked 23rd in offensive efficiency last season, and one particular frustration with Kidd was that he didn’t encourage Parker to extend his shooting range toward the three-point arc, only slightly increasing Parker’s mid-range attempts towards the end of the season. Parker showed his ability to shoot the three in college, and that’s something he definitely should do in the NBA as a mobile stretch power forward.

 

23. Scott Brooks (Washington)

During his time with the Thunder, Brooks was among the most polarizing coaches in the NBA. His rotation decisions (such as sticking with Kendrick Perkins in the 2012 Finals against the Heat) and simple offensive tactics have been highly criticized, while Brooks’ defenders have pointed to the loyalty and commitment Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and other players always had towards him.

 

The Thunder’s performance in the 2016 playoffs probably proved at least some of the criticism correct. Billy Donovan was much quicker to make crucial strategic changes from one series to another (going from big against the Spurs to small versus the Warriors). Despite Donovan’s struggles during the regular season, he did fantastically in the playoffs and the Thunder were the better team against the Warriors over the stretch of seven games. It’s hard to imagine Brooks being able to outmaneuver Steve Kerr in such a way.

 

Brooks is now going to be put in a different type of test than he’s ever been in during his coaching career. The Wizards had a down season in 2015-16 and are expected to bounce back, and John Wall wants to compete in the playoffs now.

 

It’s hard to judge how much better the Thunder could have been in the postseason with a better coach, or if they would have been better at all. But with the Wizards we should be able to get a good view of Brooks’ coaching capabilities, and whether or not the Wizards bounce back into the playoff picture will give us a pretty straightforward answer.

 

22. Kenny Atkinson (Brooklyn)

Atkinson is one of the most difficult guys to judge on this list since he has no prior head coaching experience. However, all the early signs point to him potentially being a breakout coach once Brooklyn is able to build a decent roster. Though there’s some risk that will take a while, and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has never been known as the patient type. By the time newly appointed general manager Sean Marks has built a solid foundation for the next good Nets team, who knows what will happen.

 

Atkinson has spent the past four years as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks and was credited as being a big part of the Hawks’ player development program. In the past few years, Atlanta has done a great job of developing wing players like Kent Bazemore and DeMarre Carroll. The biggest success has been Paul Millsap, who at age 31 just had the best season of his career. Atkinson was also with the Knicks during the time of ‘Linsanity’ and Lin had high praise for him.

 

Atkinson may end up in a Brett Brown-esque situation where his positive impact isn’t talked about often, but he might just surprise us all.

 

21. Jeff Hornacek (New York)

Ironically, the fact that Hornacek did such a wonderful job in his first year as a head coach for the Suns – leading the team to an unexpected 48 wins and the second-highest point differential ever for a team that didn’t make the playoffs – may have ended up costing him his job.

 

Similar to Hoiberg, Hornacek faces the challenge of living up to expectations of highly-publicized signings in Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. And similarly to Hoiberg, those players may not end up being worth the hype and fingers could be pointed at the coaching staff.

 

Hornacek has the potential to be a perfect mix between the triangle and modern spread pick-and-roll concepts offensively, since he ran quite a bit of the triangle action with the Suns but was able to keep the offense at a high pace. The messages from the Knicks are rather mixed on the topic, and it’s probably unreliable to focus too much on what is being said by Phil Jackson or Hornacek, but it’s something we’ll learn quickly as the season starts.

 

Noah should do well from the high-post action in the triangle, and Carmelo Anthony should be on the receiving end of some funky post entries that will get him room to work in isolation. On the other hand, Kristaps Porzingis and Rose are probably better off running the floor and playing in spacing.

[tmacgrady1015]

Malas talaga ang 76ers lahat ng top pick 4 years in a row puro na injured Embid, Noels, Okafor tapos ngayon si Ben Simmons, baka di na makapaglaro this year...

[junghie]

May NBA fantasy league ba dito? G

[Guiness]

Dwyane Wade chimes in on LeBron James' legacy

Oct 7, 2016 7:59 AM ET

 

Wade says 'not possible' for LeBron to surpass Jordan -- Cavaliers star LeBron James is fresh off winning championship No. 3 in his career after fueling Cleveland's comeback win in The Finals. Dwyane Wade teamed with James on the Miami Heat when the team won back-to-back titles in 2012 and '13 and knows how many often compare James' career with that of former Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan. And to Wade, there's little James can do now in his career to actually surpass Jordan's legacy. Nick Friedell of ESPN.com has more:

Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade believes that no matter how many different things LeBron James accomplishes in his career, trying to surpass Michael Jordan's legacy is a fool's errand.

 

"No, it's not possible,"

Wade told ESPN with a laugh.

"It's not possible."

 

Wade is in a unique position within the context of the comparisons between James and Jordan. He won two of his three NBA championships playing alongside James -- one of his closest friends -- with the Miami Heat. As a kid growing up in the Chicago area, Wade was a Bulls fan and watched Jordan rack up six championships, earning the respect of millions around the globe.

 

"The only thing you can do is tie it,"

Wade said.

"There's no 19th hole."

The golf reference came about after Wade was reminded of a 2012 interview with ESPN in which he used a golf analogy to compare James to Jordan.

 

"I don't know if [James] has the ability to surpass him or not,"

Wade said at the time

.

"That's yet to be seen. My version as LeBron being on par with Michael is this: They're both on the golf course. Michael's on the 18th hole; LeBron is somewhere on like the fourth hole. He's got a long way to go, but he's on par to get to the 18th hole.

 

"I think everyone knows that [James] is a phenomenal, phenomenal player. He's one that we haven't seen, with the makeup of a 6-8 guy who runs as fast as any point guard, jumps as high as any center, and has the ability that he has to do so many things. But Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time, that's who everyone shoots for. So it's going to be hard to surpass that."

 

Four years later, Wade's stance hasn't changed much.

 

"I think last year -- not only in my eyes, but in a lot of people's eyes -- really put him ... he's on the 15th hole right now,"

Wade said of James.

"And he's on his way, for sure.

Jordan’s six championships with the Bulls and vast personal accolades and statistical output have long been regarded as a benchmark for greatness in the NBA. James, who is now a three-time champion after Cleveland’s Finals win, told SI’s Lee Jenkins this summer that his motivation was chasing Jordan.

 

Wade wore a big smile as he entertained the comparison questions.

 

"You can't go past it,"

Wade said of Jordan's legacy.

"How can you? That's as great as it gets, man. The only thing you can do, like I said, is be A-1, A-B. There's no way higher."

[Guiness]

Ranking the NBA head coaches (20-11)

October 10, 2016- by Mika Honkasalo

 

Continuing on with the three-part series that started last week, this week I will be going through coaches who currently rank as mid-tier in terms of the positive contributions they are likely to bring to their respective teams.

While last week most of those mentioned had either never being NBA head coaches before or have had bouts of poor performance, this week we’ll already start getting to some who have been successful in one way or another.

Most of the guys on today’s list are great basketball minds and even at the NBA level can compete with anyone, but also have some questions about them that still need answering.

 

20. Luke Walton (Los Angeles Lakers)

Walton has put himself in a fantastic position to succeed. Next to Steve Kerr and Golden State’s other assistant, defensive savant Ron Adams, Walton has had the opportunity to learn from some of the best.

He is known as a player’s coach and a positive influence on everyone in the locker room, something that was sorely missed in the Byron Scott era. In addition to being tremendously likeable, Walton can’t possibly be worse in terms of tactics and strategy than Scott, meaning the Lakers only have upwards to go.

 

The Lakers have intriguing young prospects in D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac and Julius Randle, but we don’t know how good any of those guy will be yet – and it’s certain the core isn’t good enough to compete yet. Under Walton, all L.A. has to do next season is see some tangible progress from their young guys, and avoid placing any limits on their minutes by playing veterans like Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng too much in front of them.

 

Being a part of the relatively early phase of a team’s life cycle, hopefully on its way to contention eventually, Walton will have time to grow alongside his players.

 

19. Mike D’Antoni (Houston Rockets)

D’Antoni was a big-name hire by the Rockets and someone you’d expect to be higher on this list considering his half-decade experience leading teams to the best offensive rating in the league.

 

His 7-seconds-or-less Suns with Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire changed the way NBA offenses are run today, making D’Antoni one of the most influential basketball coaches in modern history. The Suns were always better defensively than they were given credit for as well since the league hadn’t internalized the idea of points per possession as a more valuable metric than just absolute points given up.

 

Although he revolutionized the NBA’s spread pick-and-roll concepts, D’Antoni being a top head coach in the league once again isn’t necessarily a sure-fire thing.

 

The NBA has integrated much from D’Antoni’s Suns, and the offensive advantage he used to have isn’t going to be as large anymore. It’s not that D’Antoni is worse, just that everyone else has gotten smarter.

 

The first challenge for D’Antoni this season will be getting the offense to the level it’s supposed to be at with James Harden running the floor and pick-and-rolls with a spread floor. Ryan Anderson may be the worst defensive big in the NBA, and Eric Gordon can’t stay in front of anyone, but both are among the most prolific shooters at their positions. Adding an extra bit of creativity to the mix should be enough to get the offense competing for the No. 2 slot after the Warriors, with the primary competition being the Clippers, Spurs and Cavaliers.

 

On the other end of the floor is where the Rockets can really influence their ceiling. Just getting to average would be enough to push this team easily above 50 wins. How that happens remains a mystery. Trevor Ariza is quickly falling off a cliff defensively and is coming off a horrible season for him at that end. Corey Brewer is out of position so often it’s as if he’s doing it as a matter of principle.

 

18. Frank Vogel (Orlando Magic)

In his first season with the Magic, Vogel has the potential to push the team higher than anyone expects, and the main reason for it is defense. Over the past five seasons under Vogel, the Pacers ranked third, seventh, twice in a row first and 10th. Vogel is practically incapable of coaching anything other than an elite defense, and with the additions of Bismack Biyombo and Serge Ibaka you’d expect that trend to continue.

 

However, Vogel still has a lot to prove offensively. Indiana’s end-of-game offense for the last few years has been relatively stagnant, and many Pacers fans got fed up with watching Monta Ellis shoot endless long two-pointers after no movement.

 

Additionally, he has seemed to completely missed the boat on what Aaron Gordon is good at, and what could make him a potentially special player in the future. Due to Orlando’s offseason moves, Gordon will be spending time at small forward, and Vogel has already stated that he will be using Gordon “like Paul George”. This seems like a borderline insane idea, considering Gordon can potentially be the perfect power forward for the modern NBA – a great athlete who can switch ball screens and guard all five positions, a great transition runner and finisher, and an excellent passer in short-roll situations.

 

17. Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat)

Among the least controversial statements about any NBA head coach is saying Erik Spoelstra is a good one. And one major advantage Spoelstra has over most of his peers is the support he has gotten from Pat Riley, through both good and bad teams, which has allowed him to grow into his job.

 

Spoelstra’s teams have uniformly exceeded expectations even when he hasn’t had LeBron James, and this season will be an interesting test to see how versatile he is.

 

The Heat have ranked among the bottom in pace over the past five years, but with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (health is more important than basketball, best wishes to Bosh) out of the picture, the Heat need to be faster to get the best out of their roster.

Goran Dragic’s career year came in 2013-14 when the Suns were among the fastest teams in the NBA in terms of possessions per game, and while he’s slowed down a bit as Dragic is heading into his age 30 season, he is probably still at his best running a fast team. Overall, the Heat have a relatively questionable wing rotation and second-year player Justise Winslow is probably best at power forward due to his inability to shoot, meaning the Heat have to get into the teeth of the defense before the defense can set itself to get the most out of Hassan Whiteside rolling to the rim.

 

16. Michael Malone (Denver Nuggets)

Malone can point to two successes in his head coaching career that potentially give an indication that he can enjoy long career.

Probably the only happy era Sacramento Kings fans can point to in their franchise’s recent history were the first 14 games of the 2014-15 season, when the team started 9-5 until DeMarcus Cousins went down. The Kings lost eight of their following 10 games – as you do when by far the best player on your team is out, something Vivek Ranadive wasn’t aware of – and Malone was promptly fired.

 

Cousins was unhappy with the firing of Malone and it turns out for good reason. The Nuggets had a pretty good season in 2015-16, considering Wilson Chandler missed the entire year. Everything you could have hoped for from a young team, Malone provided. Denver stayed respectable throughout the year, and Malone quickly figured out how to use Nikola Jokic, who ended up being probably the best rookie after Karl-Anthony Towns.

 

Emmanuel Mudiay was atrocious at the start of the year and only shot 34.0 percent from the field until the All-Star break with a disastrous turnover rate. However, Malone allowed Mudiay to play through his issues and by the end of the year real progress had been made. Over the last 30 games of the season, Mudiay significantly cut his turnover rate and shot 36.4 percent on three-pointers while increasing his attempts. Mudiay got much better at everything related to NBA basketball, which was in part due to Malone being patient with him.

 

Gary Harris basically hadn’t played at all before Malone took over, but by the end of the year he began to look like one of the most promising shooting guards of the future – a player very similar to a Bradley Beal.

 

15. Billy Donovan (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Before the playoffs, it would have been hard to imagine Donovan making the top half of any head coach rankings, but by the end of the year he had more than proved his worth.

 

The transition for college coaches to the NBA is tough, and Donovan went through growing pains during the season trying to find lineups and different combinations that work at the NBA level. The end result were rather unimpressive regular-season statistics as the Thunder had a net rating of +6.9 ending up at 55-wins, somewhat below their best years under Scott Brooks.

 

However, Donovan ended up using the regular season in a smart fashion – as an experimentation ground. This paid off in the playoffs where Donovan was quick to adjust from one series to another. The Spurs and Warriors ranked as the sixth and seventh best teams in NBA history by Basketball-Reference.com’s Simple Rating System, a metric that takes into account point differential and strength of schedule (and the Top 10 still includes seven champions, even though the Spurs and Warriors didn’t win the title last season). Against San Antonio, Donovan played primarily big lineups, with the Enes Kanter-Serge Ibaka-Steven Adams trio combining to play over 90 minutes per game. Over the last three games of the Western Conference semifinals, the Thunder were the better team and had essentially figured out the Spurs.

 

Against the Warriors in the Conference Finals, the Thunder were up 3-1 and Donovan adjusted brilliantly to a faster opponent by essentially dropping Kanter out of the rotation. Kanter had absolutely killed the Spurs on the offensive glass, and most coaches would have felt pressure ride out that momentum, but Donovan knew he would have a tough time staying on the floor defensively against the Warriors.

 

Even though Oklahoma City lost the series, it’s probably safe to say they were the better team overall. In Games 6 and 7, the Thunder managed to shoot just 10-for-50 (20 percent) on three-pointers including a 3-for-23 performance in Game 6 when Klay Thompson bailed out the Warriors by making 11 by himself. The Thunder only needed to shoot reasonably well in either of the last two games to make it out of that series.

 

14. Stan Van Gundy (Detroit Pistons)

It’s hard to separate Van Gundy’s general manager alter ego from the head coach nowadays, considering Detroit’s roster has all the imprints of GM Van Gundy over it.

 

The most blatant hallmark of Van Gundy’s handiwork is the amount of mid-tier contracts the Pistons have given out recently, and the current salary cap situation the team finds itself in. For the 2016-17 season, the Pistons currently have one of the highest payrolls, which seems crazy for a team without a playoff win under his construction.

 

Jon Leuer, Ish Smith and Boban Marjanovic are all under contract until either the 2019 or 2020 offseason, which is nuts considering they are all projected to be backups. Van Gundy likes to pay players long-term contracts so that the team is functionally set for the future, and he can focus on coaching. However, this leads to a problem if the team doesn’t have the upside to contend and lack the flexibility to search for those final pieces to the puzzle. The frontline is incredibly crowded right now, and some of the wing shooting with Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris remains questionable.

Andre Drummond is best at rolling to the rim with the floor spread, but Van Gundy may be in trouble at finding enough space for him to do so effectively. The last two seasons, Drummond has been incredibly inefficient, posting a True Shooting Percentage of 49.9 last season (league average is 53 percent) as Van Gundy has pushed him to become a better post-up player. The Pistons are moving into a phase where they expect to compete, and we’ll see if Van Gundy still has the patience to try and extend Drummond’s game after having limited success recently.

 

Overall, Van Gundy is still a very good head coach, but general manager SVG may have hurt coach SVG’s chances to win COY award.

 

13. Tyronn Lue (Cleveland Cavaliers)

It’s too early to put Lue at the top of the NBA head coaching ladder in terms of strategy, ability to develop players and being versatile enough to find different ways to succeed, but he absolutely deserves a spot in the top half of the head coach ranking right now due to a simple reason… The Cavaliers wouldn’t have won the championship under David Blatt.

 

For all the talk about how to arrange pick-and-roll sets, running motion offenses, deciding rules for help rotations on defense – and I don’t want to dismiss Lue here, he may turn out to be a genius at those things in the long run – the most important aspect Lue got right versus what Blatt did was keeping the chemistry good. While Blatt was focused on proving what he brings to the table and how he’s a champion over in Europe, Lue allowed the Cavaliers to be themselves and install a combined leadership approach with James.

 

This year, Cleveland will be pushed strategically further than last year. The Celtics are now better and more versatile with the addition of Al Horford, and the Cavaliers find themselves rather thin at center and point guard. The wing rotation should be fine once JR Smith eventually re-signs (and Mike Dunleavy’s back being in OK condition should help too), and it will be up to Lue to figure out the best way to play Richard Jefferson and James at power forward without losing sight of keeping both fresh for the playoffs. For the Cavs only the postseason matters, and we’ll see how Lue positions the team to succeed once we head into spring.

 

12. Dwane Casey (Toronto Raptors)

Finding Casey this high in these rankings, ahead of great coaches like Van Gundy, D’Antoni and Vogel, may be a surprise, but what Casey has done over the past few seasons can’t be denied.

 

After trading Rudy Gay back in 2013 the Raptors have had a record of 147-81, a .645 win rate. The Raptors have ranked in the Top 10 in each of these years in point differential, the defense has been among the Top 10 twice and the offense topped out in 2014-15 as the third best in the NBA.

 

Toronto’s offense isn’t really anything to marvel at, and has been at times a slightly boring string of pin-down screens, but what Casey has done is put his players in positions to succeed. Masai Ujiri is one of the best general managers in the league today, and Casey’s three-year $18 million extension speaks volumes about the confidence the front office has in him.

 

One of the frustrating parts of last season was the Raptors’ starting frontline of Jonas Valanciunas and Luis Scola, who somehow managed to post a negative net rating while together on the court, which was beyond a miracle for the starting frontcourt of a 56-win team.

 

The Raptors probably lucked out in the playoffs a bit with Valanciunas’ injuries, which meant that Biyombo was forced to take on a larger role. In many ways, Biyombo is a better fit defensively in a playoffs context than Valanciunas, since Biyombo is better on switches and overall defensively. The last few years, as we’ve gone further into the playoffs series have almost uniformly become smaller, and it will be interesting to see what happens this season with Valanciunas in that regard.

 

For Casey, the big challenge remains the postseason. Toronto has proved to be a very good regular season team, but the goal in the East is beating the Cavaliers, and getting there will require an extra bit of creativity from Casey.

 

11. Quin Snyder (Utah Jazz)

Snyder is currently the most underrated NBA head coach, and there’s a ton to look forward to this season if you’re a Jazz fan.

Since the All-Star break back in 2014, the Jazz have reliably been an above 50-win team with everyone healthy, and even last season when the Jazz were missing Dante Exum for the entire year, and Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors missing major chunks of the season (partially at the same time, exacerbating the problems), the five most played lineups with Gobert were excellent, outscoring opponents by an average of 11.4 points per 100 possessions. In the modern NBA, it’s tough to run a proper offense without a good point guard and having Shelvin Mack starting wasn’t good for the team – replace Mack with Exum and George Hill and it’s a whole different look.

 

The Jazz have already shown the ability to be a great defensive team, ranking eighth last season in defensive rating and first the year before post-All-Star break. The question for the team is now trying to find a way to build an above-average offense, and some of the concepts Snyder has brought to the team can be seen in the numbers already, and those things should transfer over to success.

 

Despite playing two traditional bigs at all times, Utah ranked 12th in three-point rate on the season. Hill is a very good stand-still shooter from deep, and having Joe Johnson allows Snyder to experiment with some small-ball lineups that should be loaded with shooting threats. Tactically, Snyder’s offense is as solid as any in the league, built on constant cutting, player motion and ball movement. Utah ranked first in passes per game last year, and the team also had the second highest ratio of corner three-pointers. A key metric for the Jazz is their ratio between offensive rebounding (an advantage they want to exploit with two bigs on the court) and allowing transition points, and the team ranked among the best in both categories last year.

Edited October 13, 2016 by hahnz

[Guiness]

A Whole Lot of NBA GMs Would Start a Franchise With Karl-Anthony Towns Over Anybody Else

By Chris Yuscavage

News Editor for Complex Sports.

October 19, 2016

 

If you were the general manager of an NBA team and you had to pick one current player to start a franchise with today, who would it be? LeBron James, even though he’s 31? Steph Curry, even though he’s thrived in the Warriors’ system and might not be the same player elsewhere? Kevin Durant, even though he just left one team to join a different one to give himself a better chance to win a title? Anthony Davis, even though he can’t seem to stay healthy for long stretches of time?

 

NBA.com poses this question to all 30 NBA GMs before the start of every season, and while most of them picked Davis last season, it seems GMs have fallen in love with a new young player this year. Davis still received a few votes, but almost 50 percent of the GMs polled revealed that they would much rather start a franchise with…

 

 

Karl-Anthony Towns. He received 48.3 percent of the GM votes, while KD received 20.7 percent and LeBron James received 17.2 percent. Curry, Davis, Kawhi Leonard, and Russell Westbrook also received some consideration, but ultimately, Towns was the clear winner.

NBA GMs provided some other surprising answers, too. While Westbrook is considered the favorite to win the NBA MVP award this season—at least in Las Vegas—more than 46 percent of GMs picked LeBron to win it. More than 63 percent picked Curry as the best point guard in the NBA, which isn’t that surprising except that he beat out Chris Paul (20 percent), Westbrook (10 percent), and Kyrie Irving (6.7 percent) by a really large margin. And somehow, 20 percent of NBA GMs answered the question "Which one-player acquisition will make the biggest impact?" with a response other than "KD to the Warriors," which is just…what?

You can check out the entire 2016 NBA GMs poll here.

http://www.nba.com/gmsurvey/2016

[lonelyhobo]

KAT is a consistent three pointer away from superstardom. The kid has a great motor and will learn a lot from Coach Thibs.

[calvinzero]

May schedule na ng NBA for free TV, from their website:

 

October 26 (Tip-off)

 

10:30 am- Spurs vs. Warriors

 

October 28

 

8 am- Celtics vs. Bulls

 

October 29

 

Delayed- Suns vs. Thunder (ABS CBN Channel 2)

 

October 30

 

8 am- Pacers vs. Bulls

 

 

 

The Knicks-Cavs opener including the ring ceremony, ibrobroadcast ng BTV and NBA Premium.

[Number35]

Malapet na! Malapet naren pustahan!

 

Excited for my knicks! Bucks and wolves looking legit, Philly still malas, looking forward sa GSW and CAVS.

[Guiness]

There is one team i think that has one last chance to win a championship and that's the Clippers. The core of Paul, Griffin and Jordan are on year 5 going to this season. They have yet to reach the Western Conference Finals playing together. And by all indications this is the season that they have all the pieces needed to reach the West Finals and have an opportunity to reach the NBA Finals.

 

Should they fail to do it. Most NBA GM's are saying that their core will be broken up. They might try to shop Blake Griffin to get future picks or players.

 

I believe this is their last chance to win together and if not, the team will be restructured

[Guiness]

Warriors' dreams turn to nightmares in super-squad's faceplant opener

Not the start the super-team was expecting in Kevin Durant's Oracle debut.

 

by Matt Moore

• 7h ago• 6 min

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Sure, the Miami Heat struggled to start their run in 2010. And, yeah, the Lakers completely imploded from the get-go with their hopes of a dynasty in 2012. But this team wasn't that team. They have a culture and a system. They were just adding a new piece and a different supporting cast. Even if they lost more games than last year, they would be better. They would certainly be dominant in the opener.

Surely, the Golden State Warriors would be brilliant from the get-go against the San Antonio Spurs on opening night.

Spurs 129, Warriors 100.

Let the shock sink in, and we'll go over some takeaways.

 

1. OK, the requisite call for sanity is important here. It's just one game. The Warriors play 81 more this season, and they're going to win way more than they will lose. It was assumed they would lose more than they did last season, and if you were betting on the kind of team that would beat them, San Antonio is exactly that kind of team. It doesn't change how much talent is on this Golden State squad. You have to believe they will be fine.

(Note: We said this exact thing about the 2012-13 Lakers.)

 

2. They were not fine on Tuesday night. Particularly, if you want to really look at the Warriors' disaster, you start with the defense. The Spurs crossed the 100 mark early in the fourth quarter, and it wasn't a product of pace. The Spurs shot 48 percent from the field, 50 percent from deep and outscored the Warriors from 3-point range by 15. San Antonio outscored Golden State by four in fast-break points, for the super-speedy Warriors that's a disaster that hearkens back to how the Thunder disrupted them in the Western Conference finals. The size issues for Golden State were apparent; the Spurs outscored them on second-chance points, 26-4.

 

3. Golden State took a beating by Jonathon Simmons. The Warriors' defensive problems were all over the place. They lost assignments. They struggled to contain. They clearly had not read the scouting report on Jonathon Simmons, the second-year man who went off for 20 points, four rebounds and three assists.

 

4. The Warriors' got great offense by the stars. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry combined for 53 points on 36 shots, which is great. Draymond Green had 18 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals. Curry looked back to his old self. But the defense was abysmal. They overpassed and were sloppy on offense, especially when Curry and Durant weren't on the floor together. Curry had a great game, Durant had a great game. They still got housed.

 

5. We haven't talked enough about it yet, so here goes: the Spurs were awesome. Ball movement, game plan, execution, schemes, this was a "slap in the face" as Kevin Durant described it, but not just to the Warriors. It was a reminder to everyone that the Spurs are still the Spurs, with or without Tim Duncan, and that Gregg Popovich will always have a plan. Sometimes those plans aren't enough (like in the OKC series), but there's a plan. His staff coached up Jonathon Simmons, a guy who literally got his break by attending a D-League workout, into a guy who came in and smacked the Western Conference champs in the mouth. They managed to hide Tony Parker effectively on defense, ran the ball down the Warriors throat (we'll come back to this later), and the Warrior's smallball skill with constant size.

There's an old joke that goes "Death, Taxes, Spurs." Everyone got a reminder of that punchline Tuesday.

 

6. Zaza Pachulia looked like Dallas Zaza and not Milwaukee Zaza. The Warriors' new starting center was considered to be a huge steal in free agency, but there was a little concern. He didn't look himself in Dallas, not the shut-down center he was in Milwaukee, at least. He was even benched by Rick Carlisle in the playoffs for younger legs. Pachulia really struggled as the Spurs abandoned him to send help, and then when the ball came, he would fumble it out of bounds. Andrew Bogut was considered a weak spot, but there's always one player considered a weak spot on this team. The Warriors should hope it's not Pachulia.

(In related news, the Warriors' "megadeath" lineup of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green was outscored by the Spurs when they were on the floor.)

 

7. This game was everything Draymond Green. Green hit some big 3s, sliced for layups, missed bunnies, had bad turnovers, was yelled at by Steve Kerr for not getting back on defense, made great passes, was dared to beat the Spurs with his shot and couldn't, dunked, picked up a technical for taunting, and generally looked all over the place. His numbers were good but he still didn't feel like an impactful guy, which he has to with this much firepower on the court.

In the wake of the ESPN article which questioned whether the good outweighed the bad with Green's behavior, it was an inauspicious start to his season, while also showing all the positives that come with him. At least no one was kicked in the groin.

 

8. Not to nitpick the Spurs, but let's talk Pau Gasol. The combo of Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge was outscored by 13 points Tuesday. Aldridge overall was plus-10. So The Spurs, with Aldridge on the floor and Gasol off, were 23 points better than the Warriors. Gasol was constantly attacked. When the Spurs would switch everything and stifle Golden State, the Warriors would just find whoever Gasol was guarding, no matter who it was, and attack with him. He couldn't contain, get out to contest 3s, rotate over on clear help, anything.

The Spurs were phenomenal tonight, and they deserve all the credit in the world. But Gasol was so bad defensively that even in such a dominant performance it stood out. Something to watch going forward.

 

9. Depth matters ... in the regular season. Jonathon Simmons came off the bench for 20 points. The Warriors' entire bench had 16 points. In the regular season, you have to maintain minutes, especially if you're trying to play into late June. Instead, the Warriors' bench was a disaster. Ian Clark led the bench with five points. Five! Manu Ginobili, at age 39, had 10 on his own. The playoffs are all about starters playing heavy minutes. But to get there, your bench has to save you every now and again. It was a bad start for the Warriors' revamped bench which lost Mo Speights and Leandro Barbosa this summer.

 

10. Kawhi Leonard is an MVP candidate. Don't care that it's the first game. Leonard was absolutely the best player on the floor. He was his usual insane defensive self, swiping for five steals, snatching rebounds with his freakish tentacle hands, and his offensive game was masterful. He attacked in transition, found his mid-range jumper working, and overall buried everything, while getting to the line for 15 free throws, hitting all of them.

Leonard was better than Kevin Durant on Tuesday, and put himself back on the radar as one of the best players in the league.

 

11. The good news for Golden State is ... there's another game Friday. They play the Pelicans, who are very much not the Spurs. They will practice, they will get a better vibe, they will put this game behind them and they will go out to start fresh. Yes, this was a disaster, but it was a one-day disaster. In the morning, they start anew. That's the benefit of an 82-game season. The Warriors have nothing but time to figure this out.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTL1j2EA0Qs

Edited October 26, 2016 by hahnz

[yellowarcher]

Who else is a Utah Jazz fan here? Asides from the usual GSW/CAVS hahaha!!

[Guiness]

i'm a knicks fan ever since. i don't jump ship to other teams. i live and breath knicks basketball

[Guiness]

10 Things the N.B.A. Openers Taught Us

By VICTOR MATHER

OCT. 27, 2016

 

Twenty-six of the 30 N.B.A. teams have played their openers. An 82-game season is long, but sometimes you can pick up trends from just one game. Here are 10 things we may have already learned about the coming N.B.A. season.

Russell Westbrook is going to have to do it all. (And the 76ers are an actual N.B.A. team.)

Thunder 103, Sixers 97

The Thunder took the Warriors to seven games in the playoffs last season. But Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka are gone. That leaves only Westbrook to star for the Thunder, and he obliged Wednesday night, leading the team in points, rebounds and the unusual combination of shots and assists.

The Sixers nearly set an N.B.A. futility record last season. On Wednesday, the franchise savior Joel Embiid did not shoot especially well (6 for 16), but he led the team with 20 points and offered some hope, if he can stay healthy. Surely the Sixers will win more than 10 games this year. Surely!

Anthony Davis is really going to have to do it all.

Nuggets 107, Pelicans 102

You want a one-man team? Take a look at the Pelicans. Coming off a crushing 30-win season, the team did not do a whole lot to improve in the off season. Anthony Davis duly tallied 50 points, 16 rebounds and seven steals Wednesday night ... and the Pelicans lost at home. Davis shot 34 times, seven more than any other player in his opener. That’s a lot for a guy who has had some niggling injury issues over the years. He could rely more on his teammates, but with a supporting cast of Tim Frazier, E’Twaun Moore, Solomon Hill and Omer Asik, riding Davis hard still seems like the Pelicans’ best bet.

The Heat might hang in there.

Heat 108, Magic 96

No team was expected to have a bigger fall than Miami, which lost Dwyane Wade to free agency and Chris Bosh to health issues. But Justise Winslow and Hassan Whiteside dominated in the paint to win a tricky road game. No one expects a championship, but predictions of a complete collapse may have been premature.

The post-Kobe Bryant Lakers are getting it together.

Lakers 120, Rockets 114

Kobe Bryant’s retirement tour sucked up all the energy (and an awful lot of the shots) last season, and Los Angeles staggered to 17 wins. The post-Bryant era began with 25 points off the bench for Jordan Clarkson and 9-for-11 shooting by Julius Randle. Throw in 20 from D’Angelo Russell and you’ve got a team worth watching for something other than an aging star’s last hurrah.

Don’t jump on the Timberwolves’ bandwagon just yet.

Grizzlies 102, Timberwolves 98

Just about every prognosticator was expecting a big leap forward from Minnesota, which has not made the playoffs since 2004. Its opener, on the road against a consistent playoff team, seemed like a good test. And when the Wolves went up, 16-1, visions of a huge season had to be dancing in Minnesota fans’ eyes. Then the Wolves gave almost the entire lead back before the first quarter ended.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins are a great 1-2 punch, but they were pretty good last season, too, and the Wolves won just 29 games.

The Warriors are going to need some time. (And the post-Tim Duncan Spurs aren’t going to sink.)

Spurs 129, Warriors 100

Take a team with the best ever regular-season record, then add a bona fide superstar. What do you get? An opening night loss.

The Warriors won their first 24 games last season and lost only twice at home. Yet in their home opener, they were blown out by the Spurs, 129-100, on Tuesday night. Kevin Durant seemed to fit in all right, and scored 27, but Stephen Curry was 3 for 10 from 3-point range, Klay Thompson shot worse and Zaza Pachulia was a wan replacement for Andrew Bogut at center, shooting the ball just once in 20 minutes and picking up three rebounds compared with Bogut’s career average of nine.

Of course, the surprising result also reflects on the Spurs’ chances this season. The retirement of Tim Duncan and the aging of Manu Ginobili, 39, and Tony Parker, 34, had many thinking San Antonio was in for a down season after so many consecutive years of excellence. No chance. Kawhi Leonard cemented his status as a top five (or better?) player with a career-high 35 points, LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 and the second-year shooting guard Jonathon Simmons appeared to be the latest Spurs find with a career-high 20.

The Spurs did not seize Western favoritism from the Warriors in one game, but they surely closed the gap.

The Cavs still have it. (And the Knicks haven’t solved all their problems.)

Cavaliers 117, Knicks 88

Will the Cavs suffer a hangover after their stirring comeback in last season’s N.B.A. finals? It sure doesn’t look like it. LeBron James had a triple-double, and Kyrie Irving had 29 points and Kevin Love 23. The main concern was the 3-for-13 performance by guard J.R. Smith, who played a crucial role last season, but at 31 may not be able to repeat it.

Fans were expecting a big improvement in the Knicks this season. And there were some signs of hope. Derrick Rose seems to have shaken off his recent legal woes to score 17. But the team shot poorly (do you want 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis shooting 5 for 13?) and did not do much on defense. Two of their starters, Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah, failed to score a point.

You can’t really fault a team for losing to the N.B.A. champion on the road, but those expecting the Knicks to vault into contenders may have overreached.

[whyuask420]

GSW and Lakers!!!!!!!

[Arcana]

#BullsNation

[Vertrag1]

Bulls at OKC for the win!!

[Guiness]

LeBron Roasted The Warriors At His Halloween Party With Some Extremely Rude Cookies

Patrick Redford

 

Monday 7:54pm

 

LeBron James, omnipotent shot blocker and NBA champion, loves Halloween. He had a bunch of his Cavs teammates over this weekend, and they all committed to full-on costumes (especially Iman Shumpert). James also used the occasion to stomp all over the Warriors once again in true Halloween spirit. A Cleveland DJ who says he’s James’s official DJ posted a photo of a skeleton’s kick drum bearing a “3-1 Lead” sign, the spookiest lead of all.

 

 

A recent photo of his extravagant dessert spread hinted at another, much harsher burn. Take a look at those black and white owl cookies on the bottom right of the photo. There are two gravestones, although from this distance, it’s somewhat difficult to tell exactly what their inscriptions read.

 

 

A closer photo reveals the truth: They are grave stones for Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.

 

Edited November 2, 2016 by hahnz