NBA Season 2009-2010

[HeroMasaki]

First of all, what do you mean "I'll even put Philly ahead of them?" Philly is by no means a bad team and they should be considered with all of the teams that you just mentioned above.

Mark my words: Philadelphia will not make the playoffs. You're telling me that the Sixers can compete with Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Toronto and Washington? While those teams have beaten Champion contenders or have convincing wins, Philly is struggling to get 10 points from each of their starters.

Now the season is still very young and its too soon to make concrete predictions, I can tell you right now that the Sixers are not playoff contenders (read: a good team) You don't get to the playoffs with Lou-Will and Sammy Dalembert as your starting PG and C. Oh and a severe lack of 3-point shooting. It doesn't happen. Gone are the days where getting the 6th seed in the East was a wash.

Oh and trust me, I know the Sixers well, I watch them on TV and in person very often. This is gonna be a loooooong season.

 

[Vapor Trails]

The Cavs will be 1st in the East.
The Pistons won't get 4th seed though.
I think they are going to fall apart in the middle of games and just let the other team KO them.

 

[Stallion]

Speaking of the Sixers match, with 5 minutes left in the game Brandon Jennings is 1 rebound and 1 assist off a triple double on debut!!! Holy shit goo Brandon!

 

[Lakers]

The Cavs will be 1st in the East.
The Pistons won't get 4th seed though.
I think they are going to fall apart in the middle of games and just let the other team KO them.

The Cavs will easily fall to the third seed. Boston looks great, and Shaq is showing his age. Last game they were -25 when shaq was on the floor. Thats not a joke either

 

[darkie]

these refs in the dal/lal game are ridiculous

but i like it.

 

[Stallion]

I don't, its fucking bullshit what's going on >.<

 

[franky]

I don't believe whats happening to Lakers. Dallas is legit?!

 

[darkie]

of course dallas is legit. shawn marion does literally everything we were missing last year (though too bad he's not a 5). i can't wait till josh and tim thomas come back!

 

[Stallion]

Just because Dallas beat the Lakers in a single match does not make them legit. First of all, Pau Gasol makes a HUGE difference to the Lakers lineup, even bigger then Josh Howard does to the Mavs and is a match up nightmare for any of the Mavs players (do not say Dirk does well against him or I will laugh). Secondly, just look at the box score to see how the Lakers played. Credit has to go to the Mavs D, but how many other games will you see Kobe shoot like that? Furthermore, this is the second game of the season; do not forget that in the previous game they lost to the Washington Wizards, who some smogoners argue will be a bottom seeded eastern team at best (not me but thats aside the point)! My prediction of the Celtics winning this year (I should find that post and quote it sometime) looks legit at the moment, but thats the problem its three games. They could lose their next 79 games in a row and make me look like an ass couldn't they?

Just sit back, relax and enjoy the season guys before we make any rash judgements.

 

[franky]

Its not the fact that they beat LA, its the fact they beat someone of their calibre by a large margin. Thats just displays the potential they have, making them a legit threat in the western conference. Yes, Gasol isn't there but it still shows Dallas' skill with the champs. Your probably right, this is the second game. A lot of ups and downs, I was heartbroken when the Raps lost to Memphis today but smashed Lebron's team the other day. Afterall NBA is about winning runs.

 

[Stallion]

Exactly franky. By the logic previously displayed in the thread, Memphis --> Raptors --> Cavs lol despite the fact its probably the other way round. Not to mention that before Gasol arrived to the Lakers, we were merely a "good" team and not championship calibre so its not like the Mavs beating us was that amazing (although it was a solid win).

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

lol good team my ass. lakers were a 7-8 seed getting their asses handed to them every year in the playoffs by the suns until gasol came along. this team is FAR better even without gasol. kobe said it himself, he had smush freaking parker as his starting pg back then. speaking of which, those were the times where kobe proved he's nowhere close to mj.

anyways, mavs totally did what they wanted against lakers. josh howard does make a different as he can hound after kobe along with marion. and it's not like gasol will abuse the shit out of dirk considering, gasol isn't going to do fuck to dirk at all on the other end as he's outside the 3 point line. it's an even matchup full health imo, mostly cause im thinking there's no way kobe will ever catch fire against the kidd/howard/marion defensive combo they're going to throw at kobe


in other news, go thunder
vince already hurt
wizards are a #4 team
wade is still awesome
rockets suck..sort of..maybe not
spurs are somewhat inconsistent already
cavs lol shaq was a horrible match
blazers lol they suck

 

[Stallion]

That's why I put good in inverted commas, they were a pretty average team that just scraped into the playoffs. However the season that the Lakers aquired Gasol, they had the exact same team as now, except swapping Ariza for Artest. They were already 30-16 before Gasol came (and they had lost four of their last five right after Bynum's injury). They are essentially the same team without Gasol as they were that year.

Also Pau Gasol's statline vs the Mavs last year was 20.3/8.7/2.7 in 3 games, with an almost 70 % shooting percentage from the field and a block and a half a game, pretty effective I'd say. I did sorta undersell Josh Howard though, I'll give you that; he didn't play against the Lakers though so I have next to no idea how effective he'd be against them.

In my own thoughts:

I'm glad the Thunder are progressing so fast
I'm also glad MoP agrees the Wizards are a #4 team.
The Rockets need to start Derek Anderson ASAP, too short.
Blazers hitting a wall :S.
Chris Paul only averaging 6.5 assists a game :O (granted two games in) and shooting a lot more.
Deron Williams is sexy
Celtics are the early favourite to win, as I said in some other thread, but the comp already looks more even then last year.

EDIT: MoP, when did MJ EVER have a support cast as shit as Kobe did in those years? I'm not saying Kobe is on MJ's level or anything but just sayin'.

 

[Shinryu]

Well, Suns are 2-0...even if all they've been playing are horrible teams XD.

Eh, may as well build up wins now, I have a feeling they won't come easy once the schedule gets tougher.

 

[Lakers]

I don't believe whats happening to Lakers. Dallas is legit?!

eh, it was just an off game for them. They're still working on getting Artest fully into the rotation. It seems the first two games theyve been trying to force him the ball to keep him happy, which isnt exactly the best idea. On a side note, the one announcer suggested a pretty sick Dallas lineup once Howard returns. Kidd/Terry/Howard/Marion/Nowitzki is a pretty scary lineup. Nowtizki would have to learn to play tougher, but if he can they can compete with the Lakers

 

[Lakers]

lol good team my ass. lakers were a 7-8 seed getting their asses handed to them every year in the playoffs by the suns until gasol came along. this team is FAR better even without gasol. kobe said it himself, he had smush freaking parker as his starting pg back then. speaking of which, those were the times where kobe proved he's nowhere close to mj.

anyways, mavs totally did what they wanted against lakers. josh howard does make a different as he can hound after kobe along with marion. and it's not like gasol will abuse the shit out of dirk considering, gasol isn't going to do fuck to dirk at all on the other end as he's outside the 3 point line. it's an even matchup full health imo, mostly cause im thinking there's no way kobe will ever catch fire against the kidd/howard/marion defensive combo they're going to throw at kobe


in other news, go thunder
vince already hurt
wizards are a #4 team
wade is still awesome
rockets suck..sort of..maybe not
spurs are somewhat inconsistent already
cavs lol shaq was a horrible match
blazers lol they suck

You mean, Wizards 5th seed, with possibly the Raptors over them. Im not taking the Heat as the 4th because they're 2-0. Id take them as the 4th because J O is back to putting up 20/10, and the rest of that team looks solid. Wizards lack of a post presence makes them a 5th or 6th seed, but I wouldnt be surprised if they somehow managed to slip in the 4th seed. For now, id take the Heat over them. As for the Spurs, they seem to be experiencing the slight problem we are with Artest. Jefferson is still trying to adjust in with the Spurs chemistry.

 

[Aeroblacktyl]

easy. before scottie came along mj had a pretty shitty supporting cast, but the point is, mj never gave up. example: game 7 vs suns after leading 3-1 previously -_-

 

[franky]

@ og

In short, Artest is not the same defensive player Lakers want him to be. He might turn out to be bust, although its too early to make any judgements.

 

[Zero]

I was like @_@ when I saw the Mavs vs Lakers score but then realized Gasol wasn't playing. That makes a big difference.

Also, when looking at the boxscore at nba.com, what does the +/- column mean?

 

[darkie]

+/- is the point differential when that player is on the floor.

for example, let's say the magic have dwight, bass, vince, jameer, and pietrus on the score against the spurs' tim, ginobili, parker, bonner, jefferson. after 5 minutes the score is 17-12 magic. all of those magic players would have a +5 and those spurs players would have -5. if popovich then subs mcdyess in for bonner and stan van gundy subs in barnes for bass and the score then becomes 22-21 spurs, mcdyess would have +6, tim, ginobili, parker, and jefferson would have +1. dwight, vince, jameer, and pietrus would have -1 and barnes would have -6.

 

[Zero]

OK, that makes sense. I don't see how that's useful though? Why would you need to know that?

 

[darkie]

it's a decent indicator of a player with good defense/intangibles that aren't counted in points/rebounds/assists/steals/blocks/etc.

 

[Stallion]

+/- doesn't really take into account garbage time players and the opposing lineups as a result, I think there is an adjusted +/- stat for that which is pretty damn effective at measuring intangibles.

 

[Zero]

Yeah I see where you're going with that. Cool, another stat for me to read - now that I understand it.

 

[Kay [Old]]

\o/ with Ariza last night - 33 points on 11-17 shooting and 5-8 from beyond the arc. That was incredibly awesome.

The Rockets need to start Derek Anderson ASAP, too short.

It's David Andersen, and I'm preferring that Hayes gets the start over him for now. Andersen is tall, but he's a softie and will get abused in the paint, while Hayes is a brilliant post defender (and while his offensive game is awful, I'll take excellent defense and bad offense over okay offense and bad defense).

Next game is the big one - if we can beat the Jazz at home, then I can confidently declare the Rockets are a legit playoff team.