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

[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