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| Early thoughts on the season | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 5 2009, 10:51 PM (538 Views) | |
| Sam_H | Nov 5 2009, 10:51 PM Post #1 |
Franchise Player
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Well its nicely underway now and the early impressions Im getting are that it is going as expected - Boston dominating, Orlando and LA playing well and no real surprises in terms of exceeding or not meeting expectations. Denver are off to a hot start too. Until squeaking past the lowly Wolves last night Boston had won its first 5 games by about 20ppg, according to Fastbreak. They clearly look like the best team so far though the Cavs have recovered from their 0-2 start. Bit disappointed in the Blazers so far, thought they might have beaten Atlanta at home and Houston on the road. Speaking of the Rockets, it was a joy to see them once again out-work the Lakers last night, they play extremely smart and aggressive basketball and should win a lot of games despite having no stars or big men. Really like their team at the moment. |
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| GlennHardaker | Nov 6 2009, 01:01 AM Post #2 |
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Basketball Legend
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Houston out-worked the Lakers but lost anyway 103-102. They had 25 seconds to get a shot off at the end of OT and failed to score. Impressed with Landry and Ariza but again no sign of Pops which must be disappointing for Brit fans |
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Feel the (Huddersfield)Heat ! | |
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| Niall Gray | Nov 6 2009, 01:42 AM Post #3 |
Celtic Pride
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Pops has a few DNPs to his name already, sadly. Pleased with Boston's start. They were tired in Minny last night, but still pulled out the win. Sometimes you win well, sometimes you win ugly, but a win's a win. Surprised Lakers have been taken to OT twice in a row, I expected them to be cruising. Knicks games have been a joy to watch, simply because they are so bad. I wonder if they ever actually run plays! |
| Anita rang Sam! | |
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| Big Jock | Nov 6 2009, 05:40 AM Post #4 |
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Rookie
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Not too many surprises so far this season and I could see the usual suspects going deep into the play offs at the end. I like what I am seeing from Mr Deng though. He has come back strong from injury and is playing well. Had 24 points and 20 rebounds in the win the other night and also led Chicago scoring in an impressive win in Cleveland. Totally agree about Pops though as I thought he might get more minutes |
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| thirtythr33 | Nov 6 2009, 01:06 PM Post #5 |
All-Star
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There's a lot of homerism about Pops on this site, the fact (so far) remains that he is a fringe NBA player - sometimes he'll play, sometimes he won't. Just being in the league means he's an elite player in global terms, so he shouldn't be disheartened and I think his style of play means he'd be better off in the NBA than in Europe. |
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| Niall Gray | Nov 6 2009, 01:41 PM Post #6 |
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Celtic Pride
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Chicago needed that win. When I spoke with Vinny Del Negro during the media sessions at the o2, he was saying they needed to be better on the road. A win in Cleveland will be a good morale booster. Seen a few Cavs games and they're just not playing that well. However, we're only a week and half in. Next week the Cavs take on Orlando, that might be a game worth watching. Though, Lebron will probably have a monster game at the MSG tonight, he normally does! |
| Anita rang Sam! | |
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| voise | Nov 6 2009, 01:57 PM Post #7 |
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Sixth Man
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100% agree. Pleased to see Phoenix have started with a bit of form, until, that is, they hit Orlando 
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| ragoflex | Nov 6 2009, 02:09 PM Post #8 |
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Rookie
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Better off in what sense? Coz he was taking the absolute piss for the few weeks he played at DKV Juventut last season. Euroleague MVP in his first week, no less. |
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| Mike Kelly | Nov 6 2009, 02:59 PM Post #9 |
Franchise Player
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Pops not playing is hurting my fantasy league team points too 
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Go Jets!!!!!!!! | |
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| Inter Tatters | Nov 6 2009, 03:06 PM Post #10 |
Flying Scotsman
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Watching the Bobcats is a torture no-one should have to endure, except their most ardent fans. They have no scorers, play a slow-Larry Brown inspired tempo that makes it worse and have no low-post presence at all, after the ridiculous Okafor-Chandler trade. Seriously, their offence could be historically bad by the seasons end... Edited by Inter Tatters, Nov 6 2009, 03:06 PM.
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| Sam_H | Nov 6 2009, 03:26 PM Post #11 |
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Franchise Player
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I think the Bobs should have gone after Iverson as they do actually need the one thing he does well - scoring. Memphis don't need that and so he's coming off the bench and just like in Detroit, he's moaning about it already. I think he would have started under Larry Brown though. Yes LA did eek out the win over Houston but that doesn't mean the Rockets didn't out-work them. LA should be beating teams like that easily even without Pau, but the Rockets are really dogged and just don't go away. I think most of their wins so far have come by playing smart and playing hard, because they really don't have that one go-to guy with T-Mac and Yao both out. The Lakers also needed overtime to edge the Thunder and though I didn't see that one I daresay the Thunder must have also out-worked them just to get that close. Anyway I didn't mind LA beating Houston as I had a fiver on them to do so.  |
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| Scatman | Nov 6 2009, 08:02 PM Post #12 |
Bench Player
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The Rockets "outworked" the Lakers? Did you actually watch the game? Both teams played extremely hard (especially considering the Lakers were coming off an OT game the night before). |
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| Sam_H | Nov 6 2009, 09:32 PM Post #13 |
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Franchise Player
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Yes I did watch them, and yes the Rockets out-worked their more talented opponents which is why it was a coin flip finish. |
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| thirtythr33 | Nov 7 2009, 03:12 AM Post #14 |
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All-Star
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I saw the Orlando - Phoenix game in person. Orlando never looked in trouble, and its amazing how not very impressive Stoudamire is up close as opposed to on TV or by reading box scores. He got his 25 (ish) but didn't work on D at all and generally didn't seem to work at carrying his team, who looked poor. Nash has got a tall order this season. Suns were missing Barbosa but Orlando were without VC and Lewis, Ryan Anderson basically did a great Lewis impression stroking 3s and going strong to the rim, very impressive. Howard got an effortless 20-something. Hard times in the desert, real shame how D'Antoni's team got dismantled, but the Magic looked very strong. |
| macrophenomenal | |
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| Niall Gray | Nov 7 2009, 04:04 AM Post #15 |
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Celtic Pride
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Good win for Phoenix over Boston tonight, C's didn't deserve to win. Phoenix played a great game. With Denver also losing, no teams remain unbeaten. |
| Anita rang Sam! | |
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| Sam_H | Nov 7 2009, 06:57 PM Post #16 |
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Franchise Player
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And only the Nets are yet to get a win. The Suns look pretty legit so far but its a long season - probably they'll do their usual of getting a top 4 or 5 seed then going out in the 2nd round of conference finals. Although the Knicks-Cavs game was one sided I loved watching LeBron go to work in that first quarter, he was on fire as was the whole team really. I am glad its his only visit to the Garden this season though as Im getting tired of the whole 'where will he play next season' stuff and obviously when he is in NY it becomes an even bigger issue. I wish the media would focus on what's happening NOW, this season, instead of talking about next season. |
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| Jack | Nov 7 2009, 07:52 PM Post #17 |
Starter
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Yeah, as a long suffering Knicks fan, I agree. I'm sick of LeBron fever. If he comes, great, I'll support him if and when, though. I'm not gonna cheer LeBron or anyone who's not a Knick now. Unless it's like an old Knick legend, but how many of them are active players?! I just wanna try and enjoy seeing our team this year. And everyone's saying the Knicks are playing awful, yeah, we are in stretches, but we've had periods where we've been very very efficient, both on D and offense. 2 fourth quarter comebacks, one great start to the game against IND where we just didn't have a second half. |
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| Sam_H | Nov 10 2009, 12:31 AM Post #18 |
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Franchise Player
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Can anyone remember back to the 1990s - was it the same kind of thing with MJ? Obviously his break to play baseball for a while might have got in the way but at some point he must have become a free agent and possibly left the Bulls? Was there all this OTT attention on the matter in the season leading up to it? |
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| Keith.H | Nov 10 2009, 04:18 PM Post #19 |
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Bench Player
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As a big Hawk's fan i'm chuffed to bit's to have Jamal Crawford as our "6th" man!!!! Maybe a strong,early candidate for the "6th man" award,  Hopefully,the Hawks will have a stronger post season this year.  What do the rest of you NBA fan's think?? |
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| Inter Tatters | Nov 11 2009, 03:14 PM Post #20 |
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Flying Scotsman
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There was no Luxury Cap back when MJ played, so team's could spend whatever their Owners could afford without penalty. Hence the big teams with the biggest gate reciepts were nearly always the winners - Bulls, Lakers, Celtics, Pistons etc. The Rockets being the only big exception and MJ wasn't playing in those 2 years - MJ was paid $45m for ONE season his last year with the Bulls! It was only when the Luxury Cap came in (in 1998/99 if my memory serves?), and team owners were forced to pay a $ for $ tax on anything above the Cap and balked at it, that small-market teams like San Antonio got a foot-hold. Of course a couple of small-market teams occasionally had a good year before that, the Payton, Schrempf, Kemp Seattle team being a prime example, but they never had the financial clout to sustain it generally. Some will say that the cap constrains teams for forming dynasties, but I think it has given fans of the small-market teams a bit of hope they rarely had before. |
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| Niall Gray | Nov 11 2009, 03:49 PM Post #21 |
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Celtic Pride
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If I rememeber correctly, Jordan was still under contract as I think Jerry Reinsdorf said he would honour it. That's probably why Jordan went to the White Sox organisation as Reindorf also owns them. He announced his "retirement" just before the start of the season (can't remember if there it was during or before training camp). |
| Anita rang Sam! | |
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| Sam_H | Nov 11 2009, 09:50 PM Post #22 |
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Franchise Player
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But at some point, maybe after his first 3 years, wasn't MJ a free agent? Maybe that early in his career he wasn't the hot prospect LeBron is now though. I think its good that smaller market teams do have a better chance now (look at the Premier league football - always the same 3 or 4 teams battling for first place, how boring is that for everyone else - probably the same when it was all Celtics, Lakers and a bit of Sixers, fans of the other teams probably didn't like it much!) and you look at the Knicks, spending money hasn't helped them but imagine if they had been able to spend even more - maybe it would have helped, maybe not but on an even keel with the other teams they have absolutely dropped out in the last decade. Mind you they were only a hot ticket in the 90s thanks to Ewing and Starks, take those 2 away and the Knicks would be Clippers-East by now. |
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| Inter Tatters | Nov 11 2009, 10:01 PM Post #23 |
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Flying Scotsman
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Players could sign monstrous contracts right from the start, the rookie pay scale wasn't brought in until the salary cap was. Kevin Garnett signed a 10yr $121m deal as a rookie with the T'Wolves!  MJ was amazing from his very 1st season, he averaged 28ppg in his rookie season, it was only when he started to trut his teammates a bit - in particular Pippen obviously - that the Bulls started to make noise. The rest, as they say, is history... |
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| Sam_H | Nov 12 2009, 12:13 AM Post #24 |
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Franchise Player
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Well back to this season and how about the finish in the Bulls-Nuggets game last night? Brad Miller's shot at 0.3 seconds left was waived off and it was about as close as you can get from what I could see in the video. I think they made the right call but you feel bad for the guy, to hit an amazing shot like that but he needed 0.1 more seconds on the timer. Funny thing was I was looking at the betting form yesterday pondering this one and decided it was too close to call and I left it alone - looks like I was right as this really could have gone either way! The Kings are doing better than expected too - everyone picked them to be bottom of the whole league but they are 4-4 and have a 3 game winning streak going despite injury problems. Looks like it could be the Warriors and Grizzlies battling for last place in the West this year. Shame for Thunder to lose a winnable game but Durant was great, 37 points and 18/18 at the line! Shame he missed his last shot to tie it though. Edited by Sam_H, Nov 12 2009, 12:18 AM.
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| Inter Tatters | Nov 12 2009, 10:26 AM Post #25 |
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Flying Scotsman
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How about the Bucks? Sitting 4-2 and top of the Central? Michael Redd is out, but rookie Brandon Jennings is making them forget all about that, he was astounding down the stretch last night and ended with 32 pts and 9ass - all up against a crafty defender like Chauncey Billups! A fit, and firing, Andrew Bogut isn't exactly hurting either, in fact Bogut looks absolutely awesome right now. Turning an essentially jump-shooting offence into a far more flexible one, Hakim Warrick's 'attack the bucket' style game helps too of course. It'll be interesting to see if their style changes when Redd gets back, as I think they'd be better served sticking to their new style |
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12:32 AM Nov 27
