THEE OFFICIAL 2019-2020 NBA OFFSEASON THREAD: VICTORY LAP

Which team is most overrated? (Pick two)

  • Clippers

  • Celtics

  • Seventy Sixers

  • Bucks

  • Rockets

  • Nuggets

  • Jazz

  • Nets

  • Warriors

  • Pacers

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MVP said:
Not referring to the betting odds. The media prognosticators which still overwhelming have picked the Clippers or Bucks to win it all. Same from the preseason.
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Reading this made me think of Zack Lowe calling AD an HONORABLE MENTION to make an all defensive team :lol:
 
tyisny said:
Reading this made me think of Zack Lowe calling AD an HONORABLE MENTION to make an all defensive team :lol:
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27634001-8660-4591-BB61-0E6BD2EB24FA.jpeg
 
pums said:
Kiwi at guard despite never playing guard is a joke
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This was his explanation.

Listing Leonard at guard -- which the NBA permitted -- allows me to get perhaps the league's five best overall defenders this season onto my first team.

Leonard does not nominally play "guard." He defends "guards" now and then, though he probably most often defends "small forwards." The NBA leaning into positional flexibility will result in wings snaring more "guard" spots at the expense of traditional point guards. If you want to honor the best defenders, that is probably appropriate. Size and positional versatility make the best defenders; point guards are relatively lacking in both.

But elite point guard defenders are still important. In the right matchup, they can tilt a playoff series. I've long argued the NBA might consider including one point guard slot, two for "wings," and two for bigs.

On the flip side, more and more lead ball handlers are not traditional point guards, at least in terms of size. And my ballot still has room for two players in Dunn and Smart who play a fair amount of point guard on both ends. Maybe this is all fine.
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Can we get a six-way tie for eighth in the West?

Alas, no. Because most of these teams have played differing numbers of games, an exact tie remains elusive.

But we’re closing in on quite the pileup after the first few games. Memphis is still up two games on Portland and San Antonio, but the Grizzlies face a rough schedule over their final five contests – a closing run of Toronto-Boston-Milwaukee portends poorly. Sacramento has looked horrid but is not dead yet, in fact they’re only a game behind Portland and still play the Pelicans twice. And, as noted above, the rear-dragging Suns have been a pleasant surprise so far and have closed their gap on ninth (and a play-in spot!) to just 1.5 games.

New Orleans continues to be in the best shape of the non-Grizzlies, after a crucial win over Memphis on Monday. The Pelicans have the easiest remaining schedule of any team, by far, and the enormous impact Zion Williamson had (23 points in 25 minutes) eases concerns about his conditioning.

But just imagine, if you will, the following scenario: Sacramento wins both games against New Orleans and beats an undermanned Brooklyn team. New Orleans beats Washington and Orlando. San Antonio beats New Orleans and Utah. Memphis loses out. Portland beats injury-plagued Denver and wins its finale against Brooklyn. And Phoenix continues its hot play by beating Indiana, Miami, Oklahoma City, and Dallas again.

If that happened, all six teams would finish within half a game of each other, as follows:

Memphis 32-41
Phoenix 32-41
San Antonio 31-40
Portland 32-42
Sacramento 31-41
New Orleans 31-41

Memphis and Phoenix would meet in a play-in by .001 over the unfortunate Spurs in this scenario, with Memphis in 8th by virtue of owning the tie-break on Phoenix.

While this is make-believe stuff, it does illustrate some important truths about the West race. The Suns have a near-impossible task, likely needing to go 6-2 or better in the bubble to have any shot at the play-in. San Antonio, meanwhile, almost certainly must win its head-to-head game against the Pelicans to crash the top nine. And the Grizzlies? In this scenario above they’d go 0-8 and make the play-in anyway. It Illustrates the strength of the position they had entering the bubble, even as it has eroded over the first few games.

The smart money here is still on Memphis-New Orleans, but it’s a lot less certain than it felt on Thursday. Portland, San Antonio and Phoenix have all looked strong, and the final standings could easily end up a lot more jumbled than we ever expected. Plus, the Blazers will win any tie with the Pels and Kings by .001 due to their extra two games. The next big game to watch is Thursday, when the Kings and Pelicans play the first of their two meetings.
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I thought AD had kind of hit a defensive lull around January/February nursing that scary fall vs the Knicks.
 
how/where does the league get those fans i guess on Webcam while watching the game, they superimpose into the crowd? One person had a monkey mask in some highlights the other day. I just hope somebody dont do a chatroulette in them
 
feels like I'm watching good players in an open gym playing right now, on a 3/4 length court.

Hard to watch but what else am I going to view on TV?
 
Jcrossover man

Lovethese early starts. That combined with no one coming into work anymore....feet kick up watching games
 
reformeDWS said:
damn that's crazy. I can't believe I missed the opinions of..

*checks notes*

@utahjazzyman and @benstinar. wonder how those opinions slipped through the cracks.
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You wanna act like everyone that isn't a Lakers fan here didn't have them as a bottom 4 *playoff seed in the West? :lol:

I'm sure plenty of receipts can be pulled, I just am not putting the effort in for that.
 
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