****The Official 2016-2017 NBA Thread****

It might be that his agent was lying about everything. He may have advised him to turn down the player option, then created the story of the 3 year offer to convince him that he had significant value in the FA market, possibly hoping to cash in. If I had to guess, Reed might have been willing to opt in at the $1.6 million option in the hopes of cashing in next summer. A guy who thinks he might be about to go to court may have wanted to get a good chunk of change for his defense. Especially if he was going to lose all of his clients after being arrested in this FBI/NCAA thing.

Either way, I'm glad it's not our problem.

 

There goes my Westbrook dream.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ussell-westbrook-agrees-5-year-205m-extension

 

I think it will be a while before Miami lands a top 10 FA. Right or wrong, the players feel like Riley was unloyal be.. it in departure or promises to Wade.

I guess we will see.

 

I don't think the part about Riley is true at all. He got a meeting with the last two big free agents. That's more than many teams can say.

 

Would Pat Riley pre LeBron had closed those deals though?

 

Miami will land a top free agent as soon as Riley gives up trying to get everyone to sign discounted.. in the end money and living in Miami is the biggest selling point. You can't expect players to agree to a discount all the damn time.. you come off as a cheapass..

 

And he did it on KD's birthday. Savage he is.

 

Then Jordan referenced "loyalty" when discussing Westbrook.

Durant deserves all these subtle and unsubtle disses. Deep down even he knows it was a ***** move. Thats why he created a fake twitter.

As far as Russ goes? Good for him. There isn't a GM in basketball that would take Curry or Harden to start a franchise over Russ.

 

I really don't think it would have made a difference, certainly not because of some kind of stigma of how LeBron, Wade, or Bosh left.

 

Sounds like Olynyk put on a show today in practice. He even elbowed Josh Richardson in the nose and bloodied him up.

 

So Kyle Kuzma looks like the best rookie in LA.

 

Seems like he did it all, inside and out. He'll be getting a lot of minutes this season to justify a four year investment. I'm very interested in seeing the versatile lineups we can come up with. Dragic, Waiters/Richardson, Winslow, Johnson, and Olynyk could be a really interesting small lineup with a lot of length and the ability to switch easily on defense. I love Whiteside, but the team does better defensively with him off the floor.

Edit: Waiters dropped 16 PTS, 5 AST in the scrimmage and was described as "energetic" so that's good news. Whiteside went for 15 on 7-of-9 shooting. Having Bam to spell Whiteside against traditional bigs will help, assuming Whiteside scored most of that on Olynyk.

 

Josh Richardson can play great defense.

 

Im interested in seeing how winslow fits in.. that guys offensive game is a black hole..

 

He was probably the most impressive player in the first preseason game. I get that McGruder is solid, but if it's between him and Josh for the starting SF spot, it's got to be JRich. Sure he gets caught out of position sometimes and might not hold up well against certain wings, but he makes up for it with activity and explosiveness. He can be a real spark.

I think Justise will come off the bench...partly because Tyler still isn't a reliable initiator who can distribute out of primary actions. We saw it again last night; just doesn't create for others in PnR. He needs someone else to do that, and I'm guessing it'll be Winslow. I'd rather have TJ moving and spotting up, creating his own shot late if necessary. That said about Winslow coming off the bench, I do expect Justise to be first or second on the team in minutes.

 

I agree that Richardson looked great. He was really active on defense and looked confident on offense. I could see him taking a big jump this year.

Winslow looked more explosive, and was great on defense as well. He still has things to work on offensively, but he should at the very least be a solid role player.

Olynyk did some good things, and looked slimmed down.

McGruder's offense keeps improving, and looks like he'll be in the mix to start at the 3.

Bam didn't get many minutes. He came in late and was active, showing he will continue to draw fouls inside. He was pretty bad on the line, though, going 1 for 8.

If there's one thing I worry about with Miami this year, it's not having a true backup PG. They have other guys that can handle the ball, but they all have some limitations in doing so.

 

From what I've read, we're really going for position-less basketball. Olynyk is being pegged as a point-center and JJ can play point-forward. I really just think it's by design. The last time we had a true PG was probably 2011 with Bibby/Arroyo.

 

They also have guys like Winslow, TJ, and even Waiters that can take the ball up. I'm all for positionless basketball, but you still need a guy that can get you into your offense and I think if they had their 'druthers, they would have a true backup PG. I don't think it will be a huge deal, but I do think it will make things more difficult at times. Because while you had JJ playing point-forward last year, that got you into trouble some of the time with some mistakes.

 

I can see where you may just want to have a rudder to guide the second team. I just think Spoelstra doesn't believe in first and second team. He'll swap as he sees fit and without a true superstar on this team, I see us as playing to the weakness of the opponents rather than forcing guys on the floor for an ideal. I 100% understand your perspective, I just don't think it's something they value.

 

I think you're right to an extent. I'm not sure that it isn't something they value, but rather something that they don't feel is necessary if the player is limited in other areas, or if they could use those resources to add a better player.

 

Absolutely amazing!

 

Noah shrugs this off and is laughing with his 80 mill guaranteed

 

Lol at anyone who thought Harden/CP3 wouldn't work. That 1st half was nasty. Rockets would be up 20 at halftime if it wasnt for Melo catching fire. Tucker and Moute looking like great pickups. Rockets are going to break their own 3 point record.

 

Welp...Rockets up by 19 points in the 3rd quarter. I think we've seen enough of the starters for tonight. Melo and PG don't want these problems, lol.

 

The West is gonna be so freakin fun this season.

 

Rockets up 81-41 at halftime. We may have to rethink sending Zhou Qi to the g-league. He's opening a lot of eyes with the minutes he's gotten in these games.

 

It's looking like Bam isn't going to be in Spo's rotation to start the season. Through their first two preseason games, he hasn't gotten in until the end of the game with the other guys who won't play.

 

Waiters and James Johnson really sucked tonight.

 

There were some serious defensive problems in the paint last night down the stretch. The lead had been cut to about 9, but guys were getting in the paint and there wasn't much in the way of cleanup duty going on. They're definitely going to have to figure out a way to protect the rim better. Also, being out-rebounded by -25 is not a good look.

 

Dolan was furious...i wanted it to stay lol

 

72million. Get it right.

 

Kevin McHale tried to take a shot at Harden yesterday on 'Open Court'. I was hoping Harden would fire back.

He didn't let me down, lol. Harden called him a clown and said McHale taught him nothing. I had been saying that forever. Now it's been confirmed. It was so obvious. I swear McHale was Joe Philbin's twin. There was no system whatsoever. The Rockets were winning strictly because Harden and Ariza were both playing their a##es off 38 minutes every game while Dwight was sitting his goofy a## on the bench next to McHale faking an injury.

Dantoni even chimed in to say "I won COTY my first year with James. That's all you need to know". LOL

 

NBA Predictions

East - Cleveland
West - OKC

MVP - LBJ
ROY - Ball

Champion - Cleveland 4-2

 

1. I think GSW is coming out again.
2. Ball is going to be the second best rookie on that team after Kuzma imo.
2. GSW repeats.

 

J. Rich looks to have become the truth while we weren't looking.

 

If Wade is 20% of what he looked Fri? Scary. That revers dunk? Really?

 

I'm a Knicks fan now. My buddy from law school is a big wig in their front office. He used to work for the Magic, but they were too boring to root for.

Go Pelicans! Go Knicks!

 

You can have my spot. OKC TILL I DIE

 

So if the NBA does start to reseed the playoffs as Adam Silver has been hinting, here's a look at the potential matchups this year. I'm 100% in favor of the reseed. I think ESPN is really off with some of these predictions though.

 

Thats some lofty praise for a Boston team.

Is the Clam Chowdah gonna get all tha media hype in basketball as well?

GD media bias