2018 Around the NBA - November

If they're a "regular good team" without Curry, why are they getting blasted by Milwaukee and Houston and even the Clippers. Looks like they're a lotto team without Curry.

 

The line for Green last night is pretty bad.
0-3 and 0-2 from three point.
5 rebounds
5 assists
5 turn overs
zero blocks
zero offensive rebounds

Almost 24 minutes of play.

 

Replay is a joke it's good for the officials but bad for the game

 

I would still take him.

 

Agreed, Blazers SOS is stronger although OKC's really went down with their last two opponents with a combined 7-22 record. The also played NOP and HOU with Anthony Davis and James Harden were Portland got to skip those players with those opponents. The played GS with Curry (and w/o) Westbrook and it looks like Portland may miss Curry as well.

 

So their winning because Westbrook and PG is that amazing ?

 

Such a big deal was made about LeBron passing Wilt on the scoring list. I'm guessing if Wilt had started at 19 instead of 23 everyone would still be chasing that record for a very long time. By age, LeBron had over 8400 points before Wilt every played in an NBA game.

 

No, they're winning because they're a decent team that has played a lot of sub-par teams lately.

The Thunder are 9-1 since starting 0-4. The 9 wins include:

Phoenix (3-11), LA Clippers (9-5), Charlotte (7-7), Washington (5-9), New Orleans (7-7), Cleveland (2-12), Houston (7-7), Phoenix (3-11), and New York (4-11).

That's exactly ONE team over .500 and a combined 47-80 record.

Oh, and their one loss was to the 6-8 Dallas Mavericks.

 

^^^ ...in their defense, at least they beat the Wizards....

 

The fact that he got 16 rebounds (which you strangely forgot to mention) kind of undermines that narrative. Throw in 2 blocks, 2 steals and +10 and I wish we had more players who "didn't pretend to care" like that.

 

Nothing on the Blazers in this Zach Lowe piece, but lots of good stuff and videos.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25290354/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-trae-young-nba

 

"I was horrible," Green said. "I just couldn't do nothing right. A lot of stuff I saw was plays I usually make. I just didn't really have that feel tonight. But it will come. It is what it is, but my feel wasn't there at all. My sight was, I saw everything I needed to see. I just really couldn't get the ball to where I wanted it to go. Things just didn't go my way, but that's OK."
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...-not-addressing-draymond-green-incident-again

 

They're winning because they're playing trash teams.

 

Such a ray of sunshine in the locker-room. Sounds like he is just a joy to have as a team-mate. I used to think he was the kind of player you hated unless he was on *your* favorite team. Now I am wondering if he is just a head case.

My guess - an under-rated player starts to get the credit he deserves and turns into an arrogant prick. If he causes the Warriors to implode - more power to him.

 

So much for winning curing everything:

Where does that leave the Warriors? Not in a good space, one veteran told Marcus Thompson II in a must-read piece at The Athletic.

“With what was said, there is already no way Durant is coming back,” one player said. “The only hope is that they can say this summer, ‘See, KD. We’ve got your back. We protected you from Draymond.’ ”

Hence the suspension, rather than just a fine for Green. The Warriors wanted the punishment to be public, not just internal. Just to show Durant they have his back.

It’s very likely not enough — and it very likely would not have mattered anyway. Whatever you may think Durant is saying on the court, the stage has already been set for next July. It feels like Durant wants to win one more title, then to go try to pad his legacy with his “own team” somewhere else.

So, KD is going to opt out and seek his "own team" he can lead to a title.

First question, will this just be the first domino to fall? Green has another season left on his contract, but his teammates seem to be in Camp Kevin. Draymond seems to have put himself on an island. If KD leaves, will Klay also head elsewhere next summer? If Durant leaves, will they still be able to attract ring chasing vets on min contracts, or will those vets now flock to LAL (gag) to join Team LeBron instead?

Second question, if Durant wanted to come to POR, would you welcome him? He'd certainly be an upgrade at SF and can play the stretch 4 in small ball lineups with Collins at the 5 (would it even be considered "small ball" with two 7-footers on the floor?). If POR doesn't go deep in the playoffs this season, Durant can play night in shining armor in POR, rather than the coattail rider he's been in GSW.

BNM

 

Heck yes, I'd welcome him. He may be a douche at times, but he's a really talented douche. That said, I have no idea how a team that's $7 mil over the LT threshold clears enough space to chase him as a FA.

 

We'd basically have to pay some other team(s) that's under the cap to take some big contracts off our hands. Meyers and ET both playing well helps. Both will only have a year left on their contracts next summer. So, that decreases the cost (cheap young players and draft picks) of moving them.

It was meant as a hypothetical question, but if Durant REALLY wanted to play here, there would be some way to make it happen.

Note: that's a VERY big "if".

BNM

 

But, this time, he'd be joining a team that struggles to get out of the first round, not a team that had already won a championship without him, that won 73 regular season games and knocked his team out in the Western Conference Finals. If he came here and won a title in POR, he'd be the savior, not the coat tail rider.

He was forced to share the spotlight with Russ in OKC. Russ, with his hero ball, made sure of it. Too bad Russ wouldn't share the ball with him when it mattered. Dame is NOT Russ. His situation in POR would be better than it was in OKC, not worse.

BNM