2013-2014 NBA Thread - IND @ WAS and OKC @ LAC on ESPN

[had pants]

 

[abubakr shaheed]

72-10

Any team ever gonna beat that???

I feel like lebron is playing bad on purpose to send a message to wade

 

[rook]

Harrison barnes is ******* awful

 

[captainjackson]

heat look like they don't mind being the 2nd seed. they'll play the bulls in the second round and i doubt they're afraid of the bulls in the playoffs....easy road to the ECF.

 

[jumpmanfromdabay]

I knew it was a turnover as soon as Barnes tune the corner. He's awful at everything

 

[carltonjunior]

 
hows the draft looking guys? Randle, Wiggins, Embiid, Parker, Exum…. How do y'all think it will go down? 

Draft is still weaker than it's made out to be. The best players in the draft right now are Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Marcus Smart IMO. Parker can be an immediate 25/5/5 guy on a terrible team, but I don't think he contributes enough defensively to get anywhere in the foreseeable future. Wiggins is too raw, he won't be making any impact on anything for a good 3/4 years. Smart will stay in his lane but he can bring Ws to any team on either end of the floor and he has mad potential. He reminds me of Eric Bledsoe.

Exum is a question mark, but he looks to be a big guard who can actually shoot, and that is a deadly combination, so in a few year he'll be great for anyone. Randle doesn't play enough d for me and Embiid is also too raw. The potential is there for Embiid but it will be well into his career before he becomes elite in any aspect of the game IMO. Kind of like Hibbert

 

[jay y kay]

I must admit, I did not expect Cavs to pull out a W against Warriors, even more impressive considering it was a road game for Cavs, and Kyrie only scored 14 pts, although he did his damage at the right time.

I really like the Hawes pickup. I think he fits well alongside Dion or Kyrie. Hopefully Cavs can keep him beyond this season.

 

[spaceorlando]

I agree with you about Parker but that's all. Wiggins will make a impact as a rookie. Smart isn't a top ten player in this draft. Undersized at the 2 and to slow to guard 1s plus still no jumper. Surprised you didn't mention Doug McDermott who is more NBA ready and polished than anyone coming out this year. carltonjunior

 

[jay y kay]

I'm on a Wiggins bandwagon as well. I think he could be special if he put his mind to it, and he's showing the sign that he may have gotten it lately. Dougie will also be pretty good in the L. I don't think he'll just wind up as a 3pt specialist, he's more capable than that.

Another guy I'm interested in seeing in L is Terran Patteway (sp?). Reminds me of an more offensive and less defensive version of Ron Artest with his borderline psychotic mindset.

 

[spaceorlando]

Yeah McDermott will be more than a 3pt shooter. His post and mid range game is nice. He's a all around good player offensively. Wiggins is more mature than your average 1 and done. His explosiveness and athleticism is unquestioned. I believe his maturity will allow him to be coached and hit the ground running. If he reaches his full potential the league is in trouble.

 

[carltonjunior]

I agree with you about Parker but that's all. Wiggins will make a impact as a rookie. Smart isn't a top ten player in this draft. Undersized at the 2 and to slow to guard 1s plus still no jumper. Surprised you didn't mention Doug McDermott who is more NBA ready and polished than anyone coming out this year. @CarltonJunior

Doug is great as well but I worry about him being placed into the wrong system and squandering his talent. I genuinely forgot about him in my post.

By Wiggins impact I kind of meant that he won't be taking the league by storm and carrying a sorry bunch to 35 wins like the typical "once in a generation" player. Wiggins right now is a hustle player that can sometimes get hot from 3, he doesn't have the right skillset to average 17+ yet. He doesn't create enough shots for himself, and he doesn't create enough shots for his teammates. He's a great rebounder and defender IMO because of his athleticism and that will take him a long way, but his offensive game needs a couple years before he can do damage. Kind of like Paul George was, minus him growing in height.

Smart is a man of intangibles and that is why I think he will be amazing honestly. He has the aura of a someone like Lillard or Burke where they play so confident that good things happen. I don't really think his game can be measured by statistics. Of course I could just be wrong about everything that's why this is speculation.

 

[spaceorlando]

All your points are valid and make sense. Who drafts them will also play a huge role. I think they'll all be good players.

 

[beh235]

I've always thought Harrison Barnes was overrated. I never got why people thought he was so special.

 

[beh235]

I agree with @CarltonJunior  about Wiggins

 

[jay y kay]

Well Barnes has a prototypical SF size and pretty good athleticism. Plus hype surrounding him in HS was pretty crazy, which still lingers around him even today. I wanted either him or Drummond for Cavs in 2012, although Waiters has been good on his own.

Barnes still needs to learn a few things before he becomes a capable starter. Namely better 3 and finish around the rim.

 

[beh235]

Well Barnes has a prototypical SF size and pretty good athleticism. Plus hype surrounding him in HS was pretty crazy, which still lingers around him even today. I wanted either him or Drummond for Cavs in 2012, although Waiters has been good on his own.

Barnes still needs to learn a few things before he becomes a capable starter. Namely better 3 and finish around the rim.

He should have stayed at UNC for 4 years. While his college numbers were decent, he still had a lot to learn.

 

[victor page]

He came out when he needed to. He stayed any longer and his stock would have fell even more.

 

[jay y kay]

Yeah if he stayed, he would have gone down similar to what McAdoo is experiencing right now.

 

[shoeking2101]

I have been extremely critical of Andrew Wiggins in the past.

But i'm starting to come around. While I still don't see "All time great" or anything like that, I do have to say that he's much better off the bounce than I gave him credit for. He's also a lot more creative with the ball than I gave him credit for. He has some gigs and it appears that he has quite the amount of ability as a shot creator off the bounce.

 

[carltonjunior]

At this point Barnes should be undergoing mentorship from iggy and learning as much as he can from him. He won't start again for the Warriors I don't think

 

[beh235]

 
He came out when he needed to. He stayed any longer and his stock would have fell even more.

Yeah if he stayed, he would have gone down similar to what McAdoo is experiencing right now.

I see what y'all saying. As a basketball fan though, I'm tired of all these "project" draftees. Athleticism is good, but there is a severe lack of polished players coming out of college. My assessment of him at UNC was a bench player, which is what he turned out to be so far. 

 

[carltonjunior]

 

[victor page]

Barnes was just never really that good. Everyone saw that he wasn't the all-world player he was gassed up to be when he got to UNC.

Don't matter what team he went to.

He is what he is. He's a fringe starter. He'll never be a 1st or 2nd option on a team

 

[jay y kay]

I don't really think Barnes is a type of guys who could use a slide in the draft to fuel his game. Had he slid out of lottery, his career wouldn't have been that much different. He's a quality role player at best right now, and unless something drastically changes, I don't see his career blowing up.

 

[abubakr shaheed]

Does Minnesota only wear the half sleeve jersey?

If the spurs drafted Adam Morrison would he have become close to an all star caliber player?