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.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by SNR

I disagree. 100%. They didn't exactly play defense when they were starting Luke Ridnour at the 2, either.

SGs who average 15-20 ppg don't grow on trees. The Wolves did what they had to do. They finally have someone besides Kevin Love who can create his own shot.

The only reason Thunder fans hate him is because he's not a player like Harden who can just come off the bench and start producing. He needs more minutes in order to get his production.

And yes, he has inconsistent games. Nobody said he was an all-star. But he's a good player, and a great fit for the Wolves. If the team doesn't start getting some winning streaks going and they miss the playoffs again, I can point to 10 other things wrong with the team before I start blaming Kevin Martin.

This is dead on. Martin is a very useful player and doesn't have a bad contract at all.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

I disagree. 100%. They didn't exactly play defense when they were starting Luke Ridnour at the 2, either.

SGs who average 15-20 ppg don't grow on trees. The Wolves did what they had to do. They finally have someone besides Kevin Love who can create his own shot.

The only reason Thunder fans hate him is because he's not a player like Harden who can just come off the bench and start producing. He needs more minutes in order to get his production.

And yes, he has inconsistent games. Nobody said he was an all-star. But he's a good player, and a great fit for the Wolves. If the team doesn't start getting some winning streaks going and they miss the playoffs again, I can point to 10 other things wrong with the team before I start blaming Kevin Martin.

I was responding to the comment he was clutch. He's an extremly efficient offensive player and a horroble defender. I'm not saying he's not a better option than they had last year, but he's not worth 10 million a year either. I also never said he was soley responsoble for the T Wolves defensive woes, but if you are throwing that money around you can find a better fit.

Martin had the same numbers as Harden, but was a ball stopper. The brighter the lights were the worse he was. He wasn't what OKC needed and he's not what Minmesota needed. The thing I dislike most about Martin is his desire to score is much greater than his desire to win. Overall I never hated him just knew he wasn't worth the money.

If T Wolves fans are happy with him I'm thrilled for them. I'm happy to see him gone because he would only hold back Lamb who is going to be a superior player.

I would like to see the T Wolves in the playoffs.

[okcchief]

Just for the record I've always said Harden wouldn't be the difference to the Thunder winning a Championship either. He needs the ball in his hands which steps on Westbrook and Durant. In fact, I said Martin might be a better fit because he's better spot up shooter. Problem is he never hit those shots that mattered. Had Westbrook never been hurt it might be a different story. The guy the Thunder needs makes 5 million and is all over the league. Lamb is that guy at home, but his youth still holds him back on the road. So me feeling Martin needed to go had nothing to do with Harden or hating him it had to do with him being the wrong fit/salary. You put Martin like a team on the Bulls or Memphis at the start of the year, and my opinion would be entirely different.

[okcchief]

I actually thought you were paying him 10. Didnt realize he dropped to 6.5 mill. He's worth that, but if he was clutch as gorlla said you would't be shit and shit in close games.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by okcchief

I was responding to the comment he was clutch. He's an extremly efficient offensive player and a horroble defender. I'm not saying he's not a better option than they had last year, but he's not worth 10 million a year either. I also never said he was soley responsoble for the T Wolves defensive woes, but if you are throwing that money around you can find a better fit.

Martin had the same numbers as Harden, but was a ball stopper. The brighter the lights were the worse he was. He wasn't what OKC needed and he's not what Minmesota needed. The thing I dislike most about Martin is his desire to score is much greater than his desire to win. Overall I never hated him just knew he wasn't worth the money.

If T Wolves fans are happy with him I'm thrilled for them. I'm happy to see him gone because he would only hold back Lamb who is going to be a superior player.

I would like to see the T Wolves in the playoffs.

Our top scorers off the bench are JJ Barea and Dante Cunningham. Neither of them exactly play good defense, either. That's ass. As a result, the Wolves' starting 5 contributes ones of the highest percentages in the league of its respective team's points per game. They need help. They need more time to rest, and they need to be able to pace themselves better from game to game. That's the biggest problem with the Wolves right now.

That and mindset. Last night for the first time all season, they won a game when the margin was less than 4 points. Prior to that they were something like 0-12. When shit gets that bad, you've got to start looking at the players and the coaches, not the general manager. There's something about the spirit of this team that always seems limited. When you watch them play, they come across as a team that believes in themselves, but only to an extent. They never seem to get really fired up in the 3rd and 4th quarters of games. And if it's a close back-and-forth, even when they're playing good basketball and executing offensively, they just seem to have this cloud of doom hovering over them. Like they're all thinking, "Wow, we're still in this, I wonder how long we can keep this up? Our groove is going to have to shut down some time."

Rick Adelman is still with it and he's still clearly a good coach, but he's old. He looks old and you can tell that he feels old. It's almost like that old tired feeling is rubbing off on the players. That's what it reminds me of.

[okcchief]

Originally Posted by SNR

Our top scorers off the bench are JJ Barea and Dante Cunningham. Neither of them exactly play good defense, either. That's ass. As a result, the Wolves' starting 5 contributes ones of the highest percentages in the league of its respective team's points per game. They need help. They need more time to rest, and they need to be able to pace themselves better from game to game. That's the biggest problem with the Wolves right now.

That and mindset. Last night for the first time all season, they won a game when the margin was less than 4 points. Prior to that they were something like 0-12. When shit gets that bad, you've got to start looking at the players and the coaches, not the general manager. There's something about the spirit of this team that always seems limited. When you watch them play, they come across as a team that believes in themselves, but only to an extent. They never seem to get really fired up in the 3rd and 4th quarters of games. And if it's a close back-and-forth, even when they're playing good basketball and executing offensively, they just seem to have this cloud of doom hovering over them. Like they're all thinking, "Wow, we're still in this, I wonder how long we can keep this up? Our groove is going to have to shut down some time."

Rick Adelman is still with it and he's still clearly a good coach, but he's old. He looks old and you can tell that he feels old. It's almost like that old tired feeling is rubbing off on the players. That's what it reminds me of.

Back to my point of needing things other than KMart. The old cheesy saying of "he's just a competitor"comes to mind. You need more of those.

[kcxiv]

NBA needs hand checking back, when random ass Raptor scored 50 points in a game, you gotta think about the rules. lol

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Fruit Ninja

NBA needs hand checking back, when random ass Raptor scored 50 points in a game, you gotta think about the rules. lol

Ross is actually going to be a pretty good player in a few years. Far better than DeRozan anyway. He reminds me a bit of JR Smith (except without the craziness).

[KevB]

Originally Posted by Fruit Ninja

NBA needs hand checking back, when random ass Raptor scored 50 points in a game, you gotta think about the rules. lol

Hand checking didn't have much to do with it, dude was raining three's from deep.

[GoChargers]

Originally Posted by Fruit Ninja

NBA needs hand checking back, when random ass Raptor scored 50 points in a game, you gotta think about the rules. lol

Don't think hand-checking has much to do with it, both teams just decided not to play any defense at all, leading to T-Ross, Blake, and Jamal all going off. Plus, the history of random-ass players going off dates back to before the ban on hand-checking - most notably Sleepy Floyd dropping 51 on the Lakers in the playoffs.

Was a fun game to watch, but the Clippers are capable of better defense than that.

[O.city]

So the Suns probably need a true star, and will probably have to give up some pieces to get one thus killing what they've got, but they're a pretty solid team to watch.

They need a true star with what they've got, but if they could somehow add one in FA, I think they've got a really good chance to be good.

[mcaj22]

T-Ross is not a bad player.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Miles

I realize he is young and makes some great passes but Rubio overall is a shit starting PG.

Yep, said that before in this thread. Bottom 15 starting PGs. There are some backup PGs I'd take over him also.

[KevB]

Originally Posted by -King-

Yep, said that before in this thread. Bottom 15 starting PGs. There are some backup PGs I'd take over him also.

His inability to shoot is killing his value (and his future). He's on pace to be the worst shooter to get regular playing time in the modern era.

Rubio

[-King-]

Originally Posted by KevB

His inability to shoot is killing his value (and his future). He's on pace to be the worst shooter to get regular playing time in the modern era.

Rubio

Wow. That was a good and entertaining article.