2013-2014 Official NBA Thread

[Al Bundy]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...4-nba-schedule

With the Schedule released today, I figured it would be a good time to start the thread.

The NBA released its 2013-2014 schedule on Tuesday in a televised special on NBATV alongside a release on NBA.com and its team websites.

The season kicks off Tuesday, October 29th as Miami hosts the Chicago Bulls in Derrick Rose's expected return to the court. Then it's the Battle of LA as the Lakers host the Clippers. It could be the return of Kobe Bryant from his Achilles injury he suffered last spring, and will be the regular season debut of Doc Rivers as the Clippers' newest head coach.

It's a massive gamble by the NBA, considering Rose's struggles returning from his ACL injury suffered in the 2012 playoffs and Bryant's more recent Achilles surgery. If those players were to miss the opening night, it's going to make for a very underwhelming opening night of basketball, regardless of the markets involved for ratings.

Opening week continues on Thursday with the Bulls hosting the Knicks in what is likely to be Rose's return to the United Center in the regular season. The Knicks will be on a back to back, opening the season on Wednesday vs. the Bucks. Thursday night the revamped Warriors visit the Clippers, who are clearly the hot team, with two national appearances in the first three days.

Opening week concludes Friday with the Nets' home opener vs. the Heat, followed by another Lakers home game, this time vs. the defending Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs.

On the NBA's biggest regular season day, Christmas Day, starts with the Nets hosting Chicago, followed by the scoring-champ rematch of Carmelo Anthony vs. Kevin Durant as the Thunder visit Madison Square Garden to face the Knicks. Then in the main event, the Heat play the Lakers at Staples Center. Dwight Howard joins the Christmas fun as the Rockets travel to San Antonio to face the Spurs. And in the night cap, the Clippers visit Oracle Arena to take on Steph Curry and the Warriors.

Monday, January 20th continues the NBA's tradition of making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a huge basketball event, with four games on the schedule. Brooklyn travels across the bridge to take on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, followed by the Grizzlies hosting the Pelicans, the Lakers taking on the Bulls at the United Center, and the Pacers facing the Warriors in the bay to cap off the night.

The Lakers first meet Dwight Howard on November 13th in Houston, and again on January 14th. They first host Howard at Staples Center on February 19th, and again on April 8th.

The NBA Finals rematches occur on January 26th in Miami and March 6th in San Antonio. Will Gregg Popovich rest his starters? It's not a back to back, as the Spurs face Atlanta on the 24th, but it is in the middle of a three-game road trip.

Despite the departure of Dwight Howard, the Lakers keep the max number of nationally televised (non-NBA TV) games in the league at 25, tied with the Knicks and Heat. The Clippers have 21 nationally televised games, while the defending Western Champs, the Spurs, only have 15. The Bulls jump to 24 national games, with the league banking on Rose's return to carry audiences. The Thunder also feature on national TV 24 times.

Houston, with newly-signed Dwight Howard and James Harden, feature 20 games on national television, a pretty low number given the star power. The Mavericks won the NBA title in 2011, and now have just eight national TV appearances. The Warriors meanwhile jump to 17 games, while Eastern Conference finalist Indiana only appears 10 time next season. To put that in perspective, the Denver Nuggets appear 13 times.

The rest of the schedule is at the link.

[mcaj22]

Love and Noah would be awesome to watch

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

Love and Noah would be awesome to watch

No question about it.

[The Bad Guy]

If the Lakers want to even get in the discussion about a trade for Love, they are going to have to take back an absurd contract.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

Most of these are light jokes, but there are some legit deals I would gladly take.

Of course, much of it depends if Kevin wants to even play for the team he gets traded to. Hopefully he's not a huge diva about only specific places and can see the value in a couple of these high lottery pick teams that he could go to.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...ex_cid=espnsoc

Particular deals I like with teams that Love has supposedly "signed off" on:

Bulls receive: Kevin Love
Wolves receive: Carlos Boozer, Jimmy Butler, the rights to Nikola Mirotic, Ronnie Brewer, Nos. 16 and 19 picks in 2014

Lakers receive: Kevin Love
Wolves receive: Steve Nash, Robert Sacre, Nick Young, MarShon Brooks, No. 7 pick in 2014, future first-round pick, Flip Saunders gets a statue outside Staples Center, Minneapolis Lakers’ title banners

Warriors receive: Kevin Love, Kevin Martin
Wolves receive: David Lee, Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson, right to swap picks in 2015 and 2016


Also, yes, I know that these long lists rarely happen in the NBA- we'd definitely be looking at a 3-team trade probably.

I like the Golden State one for the Wolves. Hate the Bulls and Lakers ones.

It's definitely time for both parties to move on. No playoff appearances in 6 years. It's not working for anyone involved.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I like the Golden State one for the Wolves. Hate the Bulls and Lakers ones.

It's definitely time for both parties to move on. No playoff appearances in 6 years. It's not working for anyone involved.

I really dislike the Warriors trade for the Wolves.

Lee is an awful contract for a one-dimensional player that could be breaking down.

Martin and Klay are essentially a wash. You're going to have to pay Klay more than Martin got.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

I really dislike the Warriors trade for the Wolves.

Lee is an awful contract for a one-dimensional player that could be breaking down.

Martin and Klay are essentially a wash. You're going to have to pay Klay more than Martin got.

I suppose Lee's contract is an issue.

They aren't going to get a good return I guess when everyone knows they have to trade him.

[KevB]

Originally Posted by lcarus

Im really excited about Orlando getting Exum if Embiid is gone. He reminds me of Penny. Really raw though.

Exum is interesting, but he's not Penny. Penny was more explosive and a better passer. Exum has nice size and can handle though. He'd be a good fit with Oladipo.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I like the Golden State one for the Wolves. Hate the Bulls and Lakers ones.

It's definitely time for both parties to move on. No playoff appearances in 6 years. It's not working for anyone involved.

Ideally we'd be trading Love to a team with some high draft picks the next couple of years, but I don't see many teams on that list that would satisfy Love's "I want to win now" tantrum he's throwing.

In any case, yeah, I definitely think both parties needed to move on regardless of whether Love wanted to stay in Minnesota or not. The Wolves aren't going to get anything in a trade worth the top PF in the NBA, but they need to do another rebuild. When they were really sucking eggs from 2006-2011, they simply didn't take advantage of the situation. They could have ended up with a Thunder-like team, but whiffing on Randy Foye, Johnny Flynn, Wes Johnson, and Derrick Williams made them terrible enough to always prevent Love from getting the job done.

Barring a miraculous infusion of talent off the bench, this was possibly about as good as the Wolves could get with Love. No top free agents would be looking their direction, and I doubt the front office would be able to afford any of them. In the past two seasons when they were trying to load up to help Love get to the playoffs, they were constantly passed on by their top choices in free agency. Too many second choices rounded out the base of this starting team, and that's the killer.

If we can get a haul of draft picks and suck for another year or two, I think we'll end up being a team with a much higher potential than if we had kept Love on the team, as weird as that sounds.

[KevB]

Sucks that Love fell to my Grizzlies with the fifth pick and they proceeded to trade him later that night for OJ Mayo.

I was looking back at the Grizzlies drafts, and I'm left to wonder how on earth they are good.

In 2003, their pick was protected only at #1, otherwise they had to give their pick to Detroit (due to a trade to get Otis Thorpe when they were in Vancouver). I remember being on my knees as Memphis was in the last two of the draft lottery with the Cavs. Oh, that was the LeBron year. And Melo. And Wade. Jerry West has said he'd have taken Wade with the 2nd pick if they would have been able to keep it.

2008, they trade away Kevin Love. In 2009, they take Hasheem Thabeet 2nd, with Harden, Tyreke and Steph Curry all available. And on and on. Conley was drafted and Gasol and ZBo came from trades. Just think if Memphis had a scorer like Harden the last three years (instead of drafting Thabeet).

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

Ideally we'd be trading Love to a team with some high draft picks the next couple of years, but I don't see many teams on that list that would satisfy Love's "I want to win now" tantrum he's throwing.

In any case, yeah, I definitely think both parties needed to move on regardless of whether Love wanted to stay in Minnesota or not. The Wolves aren't going to get anything in a trade worth the top PF in the NBA, but they need to do another rebuild. When they were really sucking eggs from 2006-2011, they simply didn't take advantage of the situation. They could have ended up with a Thunder-like team, but whiffing on Randy Foye, Johnny Flynn, Wes Johnson, and Derrick Williams made them terrible enough to always prevent Love from getting the job done.

Barring a miraculous infusion of talent off the bench, this was possibly about as good as the Wolves could get with Love. No top free agents would be looking their direction, and I doubt the front office would be able to afford any of them. In the past two seasons when they were trying to load up to help Love get to the playoffs, they were constantly passed on by their top choices in free agency. Too many second choices rounded out the base of this starting team, and that's the killer.

If we can get a haul of draft picks and suck for another year or two, I think we'll end up being a team with a much higher potential than if we had kept Love on the team, as weird as that sounds.

I agree.

I also like Joeger. For the second year in a row I'm not sure why Memphis fired their coach. I guess because the Thunders coaching situation is so bad hamburger starts to look like filet minion.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I agree.

I also like Joeger. For the second year in a row I'm not sure why Memphis fired their coach. I guess because the Thunders coaching situation is so bad hamburger starts to look like filet minion.

Giving up draft picks for a coach is, was, and will always be a stupid idea, especially if you're as far away from contention as the Wolves are.

I'd much rather hire a coach who can bring stability to the organization (like Scott Skiles) than trade picks and cash for an upgrade

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by KevB

Exum is interesting, but he's not Penny. Penny was more explosive and a better passer. Exum has nice size and can handle though. He'd be a good fit with Oladipo.

Yeah but I've heard Exum is a "good" passer. Penny was a really good passer. Exum just reminds me of him because he's a tall lanky guy who can play PG and has an explosive first step. I doubt Embiid will fall (I'd take him #1 if I was Cleveland) and Parker and Wiggins will probably go in the top 3 as well.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

Giving up draft picks for a coach is, was, and will always be a stupid idea, especially if you're as far away from contention as the Wolves are.

I'd much rather hire a coach who can bring stability to the organization (like Scott Skiles) than trade picks and cash for an upgrade

Why would they give up picks for Joeger? He was fired right?

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by okcchief

Why would they give up picks for Joeger? He was fired right?

According to ESPN, only the CEO and GM positions have been shaken up in Memphis. The Wolves had to ask permission from the team to interview Joerger, meaning he's still under contract with Memphis.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

According to ESPN, only the CEO and GM positions have been shaken up in Memphis. The Wolves had to ask permission from the team to interview Joerger, meaning he's still under contract with Memphis.

Someone had told me they fired him then I saw that headline. I didn't realize he hadn't been fired. So yeah if that's the case no way.