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***Official NBA Thread***

nightprowler10

Global Moderator
what did he do? do you mean the diss on under armor? EDIT: never mind, just saw the news about him dumping on the thunder on twitter...
Not just the dumping, but the fact he did it on an alternate twitter account. Only got caught because he used the wrong account and talked about himself as if he were a fan.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
melo to the thunder

they now have 3 legit stars, enough to become a contender...george is much more of an unselfish star, but can westbrook and melo exist on the same team? can they cause problems for the warriors? where do the knicks go from here?

one question, aren't melo and george small forwards? so will one of them now move to a shooting guard or a power forward position since they will both be starters?
 
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dontcloseyoureyes

BARNES OUT
They'll start Westbrook, Roberson, George, Melo, Adams. Offensively Melo will play "PF" in those lineups with both of them on the court. Defensively Roberson will guard the best opposition player from SG to PF and George the second best, then Melo whoever is left over unless there's a massive size/speed difference. It'll probably work out alright for them because Roberson, George and Adams are all well above average defenders.

Melo isn't a star anymore and will likely hurt them in the playoffs by ball-stopping and playing terrible defence but for what they gave up there's no issue. You throw something together and see if it works, and I can't fault that logic as running out what they had last year and near killing Russ was a recipe for him leaving asap. I mean really, overall, they traded Oladipo's bad contract, Sabonis, Dougy McBuckets and Kanter's awful contract for Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. Can't complain about that. Oh and if Olympic Team Melo decides to show up (ie. I'm not the main man and will do what the team needs) then look out, they could genuinely be good.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
They'll start Westbrook, Roberson, George, Melo, Adams. Offensively Melo will play "PF" in those lineups with both of them on the court. Defensively Roberson will guard the best opposition player from SG to PF and George the second best, then Melo whoever is left over unless there's a massive size/speed difference. It'll probably work out alright for them because Roberson, George and Adams are all well above average defenders.

Melo isn't a star anymore and will likely hurt them in the playoffs by ball-stopping and playing terrible defence but for what they gave up there's no issue. You throw something together and see if it works, and I can't fault that logic as running out what they had last year and near killing Russ was a recipe for him leaving asap. I mean really, overall, they traded Oladipo's bad contract, Sabonis, Dougy McBuckets and Kanter's awful contract for Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. Can't complain about that. Oh and if Olympic Team Melo decides to show up (ie. I'm not the main man and will do what the team needs) then look out, they could genuinely be good.
Completely agree with this. When Pat Pat is fit there could be some matchups where he fits better (and Melo could be the go to guy with the second unit) but your starting 5 is what I would generally like to see. OKC is going to have a guy used to scoring for all 48 minutes this season which is going to be huge as we all know how bad they were whenever Russ was benched last season.

I know the Spurs are coached well but I just find it madness that reports say that OKC are still behind the big 3 of GSW, HOU, SAS. Kawhi of course is amazing, but that's it.
 

dontcloseyoureyes

BARNES OUT
Can they beat the Warriors, Rockets or Spurs though?
I think the Spurs will be a great regular season team again (and are being underrated by their over/under and in general) but in the playoffs they won't be very good imo. You can scheme for Kawhi and they've not got much else.

I think they could definitely beat them, but probably not the other two. Does that really matter tho? They actually created more cap space and got better overall, what does it matter whether they can beat the Warriors or not?
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
the thunder has the talent and potential to beat the spurs for sure but my question was more around whether they can function well enough as a team to do so...another thing is that although their starting five is miles better now the bench is still very weak and i would think one of their big three always has to be on the floor in big games...also i can't see the hero ball mentality of both westbrook and melo work against a well-oiled machine like the spurs in a 7 game series...there needs to be a big change in mindset for both of them for their team to play to potential, not that they can't do it, durant changed in a big way last year with golden state and became one of the most efficient players in the league while not losing any of his explosiveness, if westbrook and melo to a lesser extent can channel that, i can see them beating san antonio and maybe even houston and a west final is not out of the picture...still can't see them beating the warriors though unless they have big injury trouble or something...
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
wade to the cavs...on paper they are a very strong team now...

they start the season with a starting five of james, love, thompson, wade and rose with a bench of crowder, smith, korver, shumpert, calderon, frye, jefferson, green and zizic...an old team for the most part but very talented and experienced and when thomas comes back, they will be even stronger and deeper, i can see them steamroll through the east again and if they remain injury-free, stand a very good chance against the west champs...
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
wade to the cavs...on paper they are a very strong team now...

they start the season with a starting five of james, love, thompson, wade and rose with a bench of crowder, smith, korver, shumpert, calderon, frye, jefferson, green and zizic...an old team for the most part but very talented and experienced and when thomas comes back, they will be even stronger and deeper, i can see them steamroll through the east again and if they remain injury-free, stand a very good chance against the west champs...
Only if they can get enough jump shooting out of that. Aside from LeBron, only Love and Crowder are above average shooters, at least until Thomas comes back. Also note that their perimeter defence is gonna be a dumpster fire, with again only LeBron and Crowder having any chops as defenders. Nevermind they might just coast through regular season and then crank it up for the playoffs.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
Only if they can get enough jump shooting out of that. Aside from LeBron, only Love and Crowder are above average shooters, at least until Thomas comes back. Also note that their perimeter defence is gonna be a dumpster fire, with again only LeBron and Crowder having any chops as defenders. Nevermind they might just coast through regular season and then crank it up for the playoffs.
smith? korver? shumpert?

agreed about the perimeter defense but they were pretty bad last year too...and crowder is actually an upgrade on that end so they should theoretically be better this season...the celtics are significantly better than last year but i still can't see them beating a healthy cavs team in a 7 game series (assuming isiah is back before the playoffs and the rest of their critical team members are all healthy)...also ridiculous that smith is cribbing about being relegated to the bench for wade...
 
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dontcloseyoureyes

BARNES OUT
smith? korver? shumpert?

agreed about the perimeter defense but they were pretty bad last year too...and crowder is actually an upgrade on that end so they should theoretically be better this season...the celtics are significantly better than last year but i still can't see them beating a healthy cavs team in a 7 game series (assuming isiah is back before the playoffs and the rest of their critical team members are all healthy)...also ridiculous that smith is cribbing about being relegated to the bench for wade...
Shumpert is an awful shooter. Wade at this point is a bad player. He's awful on defence, cannot shoot and grinds ball movement to a halt. The only situation where he helps the Cavs is being the primary ball handler on the second unit. If he's playing in crunch time this team will suffer for it.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
Shumpert is an awful shooter. Wade at this point is a bad player. He's awful on defence, cannot shoot and grinds ball movement to a halt. The only situation where he helps the Cavs is being the primary ball handler on the second unit. If he's playing in crunch time this team will suffer for it.
Surprised Korver us still on the Cavs for some reason.

Anyway, the Celtics have more dynamic scoring and probably better overall defense, but brining back only 4 out if 15 players from an ECF roster, and only one starter is gonna be really interesting to see.

Can the Wizards kick on? Have the Raps peaked? Will the 76ers clicked? What about the Bucks,?


Plenty of interesting stories behind the Cavs.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
some cracking matchups today
In more ways than one.

I feel so bad for Hayward. Bit traumatic to watch since I've been through it too. Never wish it on anyone. And yeah, the one interesting match up in the East is finished. This sucks in so many ways.
 

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