NBA 2014-2015 Season Discussion

As the 2014-15 NBA season tips off later tonight, I thought it was time for one of these threads. The opening week of the NBA season is always fun!

--Sran

 

Yeah, I'm real interested in how Cleavland looks this season. Wondering how all those pieces will fit together or if they will fit. I just have a feeling Miami is goig to be a better team than some think, (especially playing in the east).

As for my team (Lakers), we are decimated by injury at point guard but have actually looked pretty decent in the preaseason. We're playing defense this year while last two seasons under D'Antoni we only played offense. We're trying to decide which one we like.

And 36 or 37 year old Kobe is coming back after an achilles tear. We open tonight against D12 and the Rox at home, I think.

 

The ONLY silver lining is that James Worthy broke his leg in his rookie year and went on to the Hall of Fame -- obviously I'm desparate.

What a way to start a season.

 

Well, OKC is in big trouble with both Durant and Westbrook sidelined. Serge Ibaka was the Thunder's third-leading scorer last season (15.3 PPG). Meanwhile, Derrick Rose is hurt again, having rolled his ankle in tonight's OT loss to the Cavs.

--Sran

 

My Suns are looking good to start the season. They beat the Lakers by 20 on opening night, then tonight they beat the Spurs in dramatic fashion, taking their first lead late in the game. Alex Len, who was pretty useless last season, is looking quite good. New Sun Isaiah Thomas led the team in scoring in both games.

 

The Warriors have kind of gotten short shrifted because of the Giants in the World Series but I found myself watching more of the Warrior game tonight than the Sharks. I just wanted to say that when Steph and Klay are on, the team is so fun to watch. Barnett made a comment tonight that I agree with, which was this team reminding them of the run TMC days in the 90s. Also, nice of Klay to sign a nice contract and the go for 41 tonight.

 

^What's neat about the Warriors is that Curry seems to have improved even more than Thompson; his ball-handling in traffic and against double-teams is much better than last season, and he also seems to be much more willing to take the ball to the basket instead of settling for jumpers. I think Kerr's experience in both the Spurs motion offense and the Bulls triangle offense is going to make a huge difference for Steph in the long run.

--Sran

 

Still too early in the season to declare the Thunder to be in "big trouble". Assuming they get Durant and Westbrook back, on schedule, there will still be plenty of time to mount a run for highest seed in the west.

Suns did look good and they play the Lakers again on Tuesday. I'm predicting this will be the Lakers first win of the season.

This W team is WAY better than the Run TMC teams. Those teams played no D, could not protect the rim, and generally wilted in the playoffs -- typical of Don Nelson teams. This W team can play at least some D, rebound, and seems to have some players with heart. This team has a chance to make a deep playoff run.

 

Ah, crap...

 

I didn't know about the 37 shots. That, of course is WAY too many but we just don't have anyone else who can score. This should change when we get Nick Young back.

I never thought of Jeremy Lin as anything but an average point guard, but since seeing him play a lot more now, I gotta say, "average" may be overratig the guy. His outside shot isn't that good and when he does "his thing" getting to the rim (supposedly), he can't jump well enough to even get his shot off most of the time. I really hope his ankles are still hurting because he has not looked good at all.

 

That was fun to watch last night for the Warriors. I will say though that their propensity to turn the ball over is concerning but they are 4-0 and that's something that will get ironed out, hopefully. Also great to see the offense moving around like the Warriors are this year. I remember the Offense last year just standing around, and while that was good, this year everything seems much more spread out. It also helps that Bogut looks healthy and Ezili is back.

 

Of course he can. He's chasing Kareem's scoring record.