Official NBA 2012-13 Season Thread

[CaptKirby]

Lol there is no "emnity" between Knicks and Rockets fans. If anything Knicks fans are happy the Rockets got him.


The Heat struggled a lot against size last year, losing to the Lakers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Jazz, and the Magic twice. It's not a coincidence that those 5 teams' frontcourts were the top 5 in the league last year. Miami is a great team but I thought that they were lucky they didn't face a single decent big in the playoffs last year.

The Heat were 2-0 against the Lakers in 2010 (by 6 and 16 home and away), 1-1 against the Grizzlies (losing by 2 on the road and winning by 33 at home), and 2-2 against the Magic. Overall 4-2 H, 3-3 on the road (and they had a loss to Clippers on the road so the Clippers did not bias this).

In 2011 they only faced the Clippers, Grizzlies, and Jazz once each, and they went 2-2 against the Magic. They went 3-6 against those teams but were 3-1 at home, 0-5 on the road. While your argument might have some small, small, barely there merit (the Heat at full health have only struggled with a team where Dirk and Chandler were setting perfect screens for each other or for everybody else, and that whole team was dropping threes, not any of these frontcourts), you have to contextualize properly. If they struggle with these teams, they will still very likely beat them in a playoff series playing at full strength since they can still win at home lose on the road when playing halfheartedly.

They are not an invincible team, and I of all people am not looking to hype them. I just do not get the lengths people go to in discrediting something. The Heat are taking the regular season off...they are not trying to play D very hard by any means. They have been playing all offense and enjoying being title winners. Since we know they can play lockdown D when they want to, this is obviously not anywhere close to what they will look like in the playoffs.

You know the only team who can beat the Heat in the East? ...the fucking Knicks. The Mavericks beat the Heat due to exactly three things:
a) bombing threes
b) better FT% (Cuban fucking loves the threes/FT strategy, and while they usually go hand in hand he chases this shit)
c) Chandler

the Knicks can do a and c, the best they can hope to do on b is get about equal so they will have to do other things better

the Heat beat the Mavericks on turnovers, rebounds, assists...the Mavericks kept winning that 4th though <3

a non-three screen setter like Chandler mixed with a ton of three threats is the only way anyone has seen to actually beat the Heat, but I would not bet on it because Carmelo Anthony is going to have to shoot at least 46-47% minimum in an entire playoff series against a team that plays him better than anyone :|

 

[Gabe]

D'Antoni is not a bad fit for the Lakers. He was my second choice if Jackson wasn't going to come back. His pick and roll system is probably easier to learn than it would be for the team than the Triangle, and Jackson wanting to miss games was a concern. I really don't think he would have wanted to coach for four years either. Overall, I'm relieved. Between Dunleavy and D'Antoni, I much prefer D'Antoni.

 

[Randombobman]

Wait wait wait, Dunleavy was seriously considered? You can't tell me the Lakers FO would be THAT stupid to hire a moronic coach like him. That dude was terrible with the clippers and I want nothing, NOTHING to do with him. I'd take D'Antoni over him everyday of the week.

 

[Gabe]

Wait wait wait, Dunleavy was seriously considered? You can't tell me the Lakers FO would be THAT stupid to hire a moronic coach like him. That dude was terrible with the clippers and I want nothing, NOTHING to do with him. I'd take D'Antoni over him everyday of the week.

Well, he got a 90-min interview he (Dunleavy) thought went well. I read that one of the reasons D'Antoni was picked over Jackson was that his style would be more suitable for Nash and Dwight, which was always a concern for the FO.

 

[gsninja]

Plus, Jackson asked for way too much during the discussions. The Lakers didn't need him that badly. It was silly to think there was a reasonable chance for him to come back anyways.

The one thing that worries me about D'Antoni is that he's notoriously bad on defense, but maybe he can make things work as long as he works well together with the assistant coaches.

 

[Randombobman]

Well according to Jeff Van Gundy, D'Antoni's inability to coach defense is 'much overblown'. Well it's not like he can run the same up-tempo style he did in Phoenix, with all the old legs on the Lakers, but I'm sure we'll see a lot more of the pick-n-roll now. I'm remaining optimistic about the whole deal

 

[Gabe]

D'Antoni has Dwight to anchor the defense, and putting the ball in Steve Nash's hand is only going to do good.

The Lakers really dodged a bullet with the Andrew Bynum trade. Out five more weeks at minimum? I hope he can come back and dominate though. He was too good last year.

 

[CaptKirby]

I think if Brown had been replaced with Dunleavy I might have actually died laughing, so thankfully that was not put to the test

 

[Vein]

Dunno why everybody has to still think about it, but Sloan is the obvious choice...

 

[Randombobman]

Dunno why everybody has to still think about it, but Sloan is the obvious choice...

 

[Gabe]

Dunno why everybody has to still think about it, but Sloan is the obvious choice...

He was never contacted by the Laker's FO and they already chose D'Antoni by the time you posted.


I don't think I'm going to watch LA play the Spurs tomorrow, without Nash they were likely to lose but without Blake things have only got worse. If D'Antoni is cleared to coach by Friday and Nash is cleared to play then I can start assessing how good (or bad) they're going to be now.

Man that Houston/Miami game was fun to watch. Would have been better if Lin and/or Harden were able to clinch the tying shot, but hey. Glad to see Boston getting better too.

 

[Vein]

burp. nevermind..

 

[SGV]

lol gabe your excuse to not to watch the Lakers is that they might lose? Did you just skip 04-07?

 

[Gabe]

lol gabe your excuse to not to watch the Lakers is that they might lose? Did you just skip 04-07?

Well, I don't think their odds against the teams they've played against before SA was that bad. But right now, they're short Nash, Blake, and a %100 Howard with an interim coach who is almost certainly inferior to Pop, against a Spurs team that I would rank as number one in the West (Yes, over the Thunder). So their odds dont look great right now and even though Kobe has shot the ball really well lately. Morris is unproven, besides all of this I recently switched to DirecTV which was a gigantic fucking mistake.

I think watching them lose games they were certain to lose was easier as a kid. Once you're in your 20's it's like why bother, even though they're not guaranteed to beat SA otherwise (for the record I think they could with D'Antoni and Nash) nobody wants to watch a boring game.

EDIT: Damn, those Knicks are looking good.

 

[CaptKirby]

the Cavaliers bench is atrocious, that loss was fucking inexcusable given the manly man performances from Varajeo and Irving

 

[AfroThunderRule]

Literally do not know how the Knicks won that game, they looked horrible. We need to play better to have any chance at winning against the Spurs or Grizzles.

 

[CaptKirby]

really, literally you have no idea, not even the obvious: they were against the team headed to a 16-66 season???

 

[Vein]

Brooklyn wins again! And yeah, Varejao and Irving must be feeling wasted right now. They're playing great.

 

[Tsunami]

really, literally you have no idea, not even the obvious: they were against the team headed to a 16-66 season???

LOL. No need to be condescending.
But yeah, the Knicks can't afford to be on cruise control playing in the Atlantic division. Philly, Celtics, Raps, and even Nets are capable of a few upsets.

 

[AfroThunderRule]

really, literally you have no idea, not even the obvious: they were against the team headed to a 16-66 season???

Nope, no clue bro.

 

[Gabe]

the Cavaliers bench is atrocious, that loss was fucking inexcusable given the manly man performances from Varajeo and Irving

Their bench was on the floor for a combined 61 minutes and only scored six points. Yeah, pretty sad.

And yeah, Varejao and Irving must be feeling wasted right now. They're playing great.

If Sterling doesn't start putting better players around them they'll probably leave. And they should, they're too good to waste their time on a mediocre team.

 

[Randombobman]

Lakers looking really sharp at halftime. SA has played good, but LA is playing better. Really cutting down on TO's is doing wonders, and the few times the offense has sputtered, they've been able to generate points off of defense and running the fastbreak (!). Morris is erratic as hell and MWP has chucked some bad shots, but everyone else is playing their A-game tonight. We NEED to get back to .500 before D'Antoni gets here.

 

[Phadunk]

I need Howard to start kicking some ass.

Maybe the only way he can succeed is if he's around 4 3pt shooters.

 

[Gabe]

He's just not 100% yet. Probably around 80% right now. He'll be fine. Lakers didn't do too bad. It's a shame Pau missed that three, but losing by a shot isn't bad at all for a team missing their better two point guards.

 

[Phadunk]

K. Irving might be my second favorite pg behind D. Rose.

A tricky mother fucker and has the same bored and dull look as D. Rose throughout games, even after most really solid plays. Love it.