***Official 2022-2023 NBA Thread***

[dirk digler]

Can't believe the regular season starts tonight. Just seemed like the Finals ended a couple weeks ago.



Philly vs Celtics: 6:30PM CST TNT

GSW vs Lakers: 9:00PM CST TNT

[Gary Cooper]

The Celtics are a problem when they actually play defense.

They're much bigger than Miami and their length caused the Heat problems these last two games. They're closing on shooters and swarming ball handlers like there's no tomorrow.

[lcarus]

Another blowout. Incredible. That's what you get in this era of chucking 50 three pointers a game. Big margins. Boring games.

[staylor26]

If you're the Nuggets, you're absolutely rooting for the Heat to win game 6.

Nothing like getting a significantly weaker team that was lucky to survive.

[Gary Cooper]

Originally Posted by staylor26

If you're the Nuggets, you're absolutely rooting for the Heat to win game 6.

Nothing like getting a significantly weaker team that was lucky to survive.

Not sure about that. Denver played 15 games. If Boston wins, they will enter the Finals playing 20 games. That's a BIG difference. Boston was gassed last year as the Finals progressed and the games played advantage was much less than this Finals would be.

[KC_Connection]

Denver beats the Heat in 4 or 5 games.

A series with Boston would be completely up in the air.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

The funniest part about Kwame Brown’s comments is that LeBron has literally hit the most clutch shots in history. pic.twitter.com/TK37xCOLvF

— LeBron History 🏀 (@bronhistory) May 25, 2023

So clutch. Such GOATness.

we haven't seen that dude in years, man, get off it

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Gary Cooper

Not sure about that. Denver played 15 games. If Boston wins, they will enter the Finals playing 20 games. That's a BIG difference. Boston was gassed last year as the Finals progressed and the games played advantage was much less than this Finals would be.

There are 17 days from game 1 to game 7 in the Finals. In other words, more rest in between games. You take the weaker team that almost choked away a 3-0 series lead 10 times out of 10.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

we haven't seen that dude in years, man, get off it

[Hammock Parties]

looked like he almost broke a hip getting to the bucket

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Waiting for B/R to post a pic of Jimmy Butler doing nothing and captioning it like he's got a plan for Game 6.

— Barry (@BarryOnHere) May 26, 2023

I remember the days when he was being compared to MJ. Three days ago.

There it is. https://t.co/zRjIThxyST

— Barry (@BarryOnHere) May 26, 2023

[tyecopeland]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Why would any team voluntarily throw themselves in FRONT of the Jordan Poole's Contract bullet?

And I'm not completely convinced Moses Moody even belongs in the NBA.

Kuminga is about the only piece in that deal that has any value at all. That's not the sort of deal the Lakers would EVER make. They star-chase to keep the attention of the LA sports scene. They ain't trading a marquee player for a contractual liability, a scratch-off ticket and a never was.

Cowherds take is Wiggins, Poole and kuminga for LeBron. The math works on that one. And while I don't believe your take that moody isn't worthy to be an nba player, Wiggins is obviously a vastly superior player.

[dirk digler]

When Boston is on Miami can't beat them. They are still a longshot to win IMO but at least they didn't go down like punks.

[DanBecky]

Miami can’t let this happen. I don’t want that city or state to experience any more success.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by tyecopeland

Cowherds take is Wiggins, Poole and kuminga for LeBron. The math works on that one. And while I don't believe your take that moody isn't worthy to be an nba player, Wiggins is obviously a vastly superior player.

Taking on Poole is the biggest problem in the whole thing, though.

Wiggins would make it a bit more interesting, though.

You're essentially getting Kuminga to offset the Poole contractual liability. Taking Poole and Kuminga for like a late 1st rounder would be an okay deal. Kuminga has more value than that but Poole takes some value off the table.

So if you do a little algebra and equate Poole/Kuminga as being worth roughly a late 1st, the deal becomes James for Wiggins and a late 1.

I mean it's not a GOOD deal, but it's a deal you might wanna make if you're the Lakers and trying to look to the future. But you're really banking on pulling a couple of cock-teases to their best level of play and that's a MASSIVE risk.

I mean just how confident can you be that Wiggins will be a guy who you can build around? I mean obviously Davis would be the focal point but you figure he's gonna miss 20 games. Can some sort of funky-ass small ball lineup with Wiggins, Poole and Russell accomplish anything at all?

Eh...probably not. And that's not a lineup that's going to be able to recruit any additional high-end talent.

I think you probably raise that team's floor a bit, but the ceiling is just so limited, IMO.

A 1-2-3-4 of Russell (PG), Poole (SG), Wiggins (SF), Davis (PF) is pretty interesting when they're healthy and productive, but my word, that's 4 of the streakiest and least consistent players in the entire NBA. One of the biggest issues with that team, though, is that it's gonna be awfully hard to give a bigger role to Reaves unless you really commit to small ball.

So then you go with 1-2-3-4-5 of Russell, Reaves, Poole at SF, Wiggins at PF and Davis at C. Poole is no sort of SF though so it's really just a straight 3-guard lineup with an undersized PF in Wiggins. Now in the post-season that might be kinda feisty if those guys are playing well because Davis can erase a lot of defensive issues by turning his defensive effort up to 11. But that's gonna be a loooooooong regular season defensively.

[Eureka]

Miami losing the dog mentality.

Boston really took it personal when the media started talking about how they quit in game 3.