EPTOn July 17 2014 22:47 ZenithM wrote:
Haha that's amazing. I'm not tall so that's inspirational :D
Haha that's amazing. I'm not tall so that's inspirational :D
Yea its amazing to see someone shorter than me playing at this level.
NBA Offseason 2014 - Page 53
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Roggay
Switzerland6320 Posts
Yea its amazing to see someone shorter than me playing at this level. | ||
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SK.Testie
Canada11084 Posts
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seiferoth10
3362 Posts
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Ace
United States16096 Posts
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XaI)CyRiC
United States4471 Posts
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Vindicare605
United States16124 Posts
4 Power Forwards on the roster now, still no actual center. Makes sense I guess? | ||
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
Instead they have 4 (5) PF's , Ryan Kelly, Jordan Hill, Ed Davis, Randle, and now Boozer(?) They have 4 PG's in Marshall, Nash, Lin, and Clarkson Kobe and Randle are cool and I actually like Nick Young as a high volume scorer off the bench. Problem is this team is not complete, there's no starting SF unless you put Nick Young or Kobe there, but they can't play a bulk amount of minutes together; especially with Lin. They have no starting center unless you're thinking about using Hill/Davis, but they're both super undersized for the 5. Sacre is definitely not a starting NBA center, but he's a solid 3rd backup big. Overall, what a messy lineup that lacks any sort of coherence. | ||
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Ru ba
Serbia1812 Posts
On July 18 2014 06:51 Vindicare605 wrote: Apparently we got Boozer? 4 Power Forwards on the roster now, still no actual center. Makes sense I guess? who needs centers in todays game anyway | ||
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
Let's take a look at the East: Miami: - Bosh - Wade - Deng - Chalmers - Cole - Birdman - Josh McRoberts Wizards - Wall - Beal - Pierce - Nene - Gortat - Bench: Webster (solid shooter), Blair (defensive hustler), Glen Rice Jr/Otto Porter (could have potential to be good this year), Andre Miller (wily dude) Hornets - Big Al - Kemba - MKG - Lance - Vonleh (beastly defender in summer league so far) - Bench: Zeller, Gary Neal, Gerald Henderson Bulls - Rose (tba) - Noah - Gasol - Jimmy Butler - Dunleavy - Bench: Mirotic, Hinrich, McBuckets, Taj Cavs - LeBron - Wiggins - Kyrie - Tristan Thompson - Varejao - Bench: Bennett (looks good in summer league so far), Miller, Waiters, Raptors - Lowry - DeRozan - Amir Johnson - Jonas Valw/e - Terrence Ross - Bench: Vasquez, Patterson, Landry Fields Pacers - George Hill - Hibbert - Paul George - Stuckey - David West - Bench: Evan Turner, Scola, CJ Watson, That's 7 teams who all have pretty comparable depth. You can also add the Hawks, Nets, and Knicks as fringe teams who could possibly make something happen as well (Atlanta is always above average). None of these teams have a clear or significant advantage over the others. I think Washington/Chicago (barring injuries) have the deepest teams, Cleveland has the most talent, the Hornets have some insane defenders (MKG + Lance, wao). This year will be incredibly awesome - I think on the whole the East is still weaker but the skill parity has gone. Seems like any of the top 8 teams in the East could win the conference. Meanwhile - looking at the West... Very few teams have gotten significantly better or worse. Houston is basically the same (swap Parsons for Ariza); Lin wasn't givng them much and had been mostly replaced by Beverly anyway. The Spurs are basically the same. OKC is the same minus Fisher. The Clippers added Spencer Hawes but are otherwise the same. Memphis is the same minus Ed Davis (solid backup), Warriors are the same, Portland is the same. The only team who really upgraded its roster has been Dallas. They re-acquired Chandler and picked up another Chander (Parsons). They have a really nice team now: - Harris (pg) - Monta (sg) - Parsons (sf) - Dirk (pf) - Tyson (c) Their bench is weaker now for sure minus Dalembert, Carter, etc but I think they'll find some pieces. The other thing about the West is the fringe teams have improved: - Denver added Afflalo, and Gallinari should return. They were devastated by injury last season and should definitely improve this year. - Pelicans should improved simply by virtue of everyone on the team getting older and better by a year. If they can figure out the Jrue Holiday/Tyreke/Eric Gordon dynamic that team has potential to be strong. - Minnesota may not underachieve (if they keep Love), and could be a 2013-2014 Portland candidate(?) Who knows what will happen in Phoenix or Sacramento - maybe they'll surprise us. Overall, the West is more talented, has more stars, and more depth. The awesome thing though is that both conferences are very equal, outside of the Spurs or OKC I don't think there are clear favorites in the West; and even the Spurs/Thunder aren't locks. I'm hyped for the year even though the Lakers are going to be complete shit. #Wizards | ||
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FakePseudo
Belgium716 Posts
On July 18 2014 07:53 Xeris wrote: + Show Spoiler + Anyway, I'm actually incredibly excited about the Eastern Conference this upcoming year. I feel like all the moves have increased the parity of skill in the East. There's no heavy favorite any more; I think there are a good 6-7 teams who can come out of the East (and please don't say "THE BULLS ARE THE FAVORITES, ROSE IS HEALTHY," you said that last year and look what happened). Let's take a look at the East: Miami: - Bosh - Wade - Deng - Chalmers - Cole - Birdman - Josh McRoberts Wizards - Wall - Beal - Pierce - Nene - Gortat - Bench: Webster (solid shooter), Blair (defensive hustler), Glen Rice Jr/Otto Porter (could have potential to be good this year), Andre Miller (wily dude) Hornets - Big Al - Kemba - MKG - Lance - Vonleh (beastly defender in summer league so far) - Bench: Zeller, Gary Neal, Gerald Henderson Bulls - Rose (tba) - Noah - Gasol - Jimmy Butler - Dunleavy - Bench: Mirotic, Hinrich, McBuckets, Taj Cavs - LeBron - Wiggins - Kyrie - Tristan Thompson - Varejao - Bench: Bennett (looks good in summer league so far), Miller, Waiters, Raptors - Lowry - DeRozan - Amir Johnson - Jonas Valw/e - Terrence Ross - Bench: Vasquez, Patterson, Landry Fields Pacers - George Hill - Hibbert - Paul George - Stuckey - David West - Bench: Evan Turner, Scola, CJ Watson, That's 7 teams who all have pretty comparable depth. You can also add the Hawks, Nets, and Knicks as fringe teams who could possibly make something happen as well (Atlanta is always above average). None of these teams have a clear or significant advantage over the others. I think Washington/Chicago (barring injuries) have the deepest teams, Cleveland has the most talent, the Hornets have some insane defenders (MKG + Lance, wao). This year will be incredibly awesome - I think on the whole the East is still weaker but the skill parity has gone. Seems like any of the top 8 teams in the East could win the conference. Meanwhile - looking at the West... Very few teams have gotten significantly better or worse. Houston is basically the same (swap Parsons for Ariza); Lin wasn't givng them much and had been mostly replaced by Beverly anyway. The Spurs are basically the same. OKC is the same minus Fisher. The Clippers added Spencer Hawes but are otherwise the same. Memphis is the same minus Ed Davis (solid backup), Warriors are the same, Portland is the same. The only team who really upgraded its roster has been Dallas. They re-acquired Chandler and picked up another Chander (Parsons). They have a really nice team now: - Harris (pg) - Monta (sg) - Parsons (sf) - Dirk (pf) - Tyson (c) Their bench is weaker now for sure minus Dalembert, Carter, etc but I think they'll find some pieces. The other thing about the West is the fringe teams have improved: - Denver added Afflalo, and Gallinari should return. They were devastated by injury last season and should definitely improve this year. - Pelicans should improved simply by virtue of everyone on the team getting older and better by a year. If they can figure out the Jrue Holiday/Tyreke/Eric Gordon dynamic that team has potential to be strong. - Minnesota may not underachieve (if they keep Love), and could be a 2013-2014 Portland candidate(?) Who knows what will happen in Phoenix or Sacramento - maybe they'll surprise us. Overall, the West is more talented, has more stars, and more depth. The awesome thing though is that both conferences are very equal, outside of the Spurs or OKC I don't think there are clear favorites in the West; and even the Spurs/Thunder aren't locks. I'm hyped for the year even though the Lakers are going to be complete shit. #Wizards Maybe the East has gotten more homogeneous, but [I think] the best teams in the East (read: Heat and pre meltdown Pacers) have gotten a lot worse while the middle bunch maybe got a little whiny stronger. Barring unexpected individual breakout season, or everything falling into place right away for either Cavs or Bulls, some comparisons could get really ugly real quick. The season is a long grind so of course I'm not gonna call an easy BYE finals for the West team, but I'm gonna call people calling it from the tip off of the season, with west teams like SAS, OKC, HOU and LAC starting really strong since they already have chemistry and experience, while the east hopes, well, will remain only hopes for some time | ||
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FakePseudo
Belgium716 Posts
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Doraemon
Australia14949 Posts
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DystopiaX
United States16236 Posts
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
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Xeris
Iran17695 Posts
On July 18 2014 08:12 DystopiaX wrote: The bulls are the favorites, Rose is healthy. He was healthy at the start of last year, too. Everyone and their grandma called the Bulls favorites to win. Bill/Jalen predicted the Bulls to win the 2014 title, "Rose is healthy, Thibs is a god, everyone else on the team is gonna get better!!" They didn't even predict that Joakim Noah would make the leap he did. Point being, though, Rose got hurt after a few weeks and they were not the best team. After two years, you can't possibly mark the Bulls as the favorites until you see Rose play in NBA games the way he is capable of playing, without getting injured. Let Gasol play a season without missing 35 games to injury. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
You forgot OKC lost Sefalosha, who really wasn't worth keeping anyway. You would think that it would be easy to lure free agents to OKC. Maybe they just don't want to live there. Notwithstanding that the only team they lost to was the SA buzzsaw, I think they definitely fall below the Clippers this year. | ||
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RowdierBob
Australia13427 Posts
Is mcbuckets gonna start? And it's going to take rose time to find his way. I think he's gonna struggle this year. Should still hit around 50 wins on their D alone but I think they'll struglle to get close to the one seed | ||
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XaI)CyRiC
United States4471 Posts
On July 18 2014 07:28 Xeris wrote: I'm so confused by wtf the Lakers are doing. What a stupid "Plan B." I thought their Plan B would be to make a run at like... Lance/Greg Monroe with massive 2 year deals. At least then they could have strung together a starting 5 of nash kobe lance randle monroe, with hill/young/whoever off the bench. At least this starting 5 would be competent and likely playoff-worthy assuming everyone is healthy. Instead they have 4 (5) PF's , Ryan Kelly, Jordan Hill, Ed Davis, Randle, and now Boozer(?) They have 4 PG's in Marshall, Nash, Lin, and Clarkson Kobe and Randle are cool and I actually like Nick Young as a high volume scorer off the bench. Problem is this team is not complete, there's no starting SF unless you put Nick Young or Kobe there, but they can't play a bulk amount of minutes together; especially with Lin. They have no starting center unless you're thinking about using Hill/Davis, but they're both super undersized for the 5. Sacre is definitely not a starting NBA center, but he's a solid 3rd backup big. Overall, what a messy lineup that lacks any sort of coherence. My best guess is that they're just grabbing whatever value they can get out there that doesn't affect their FA plans over the next two years. The players, coaches and management are all saying that they're trying to compete and make the playoffs, but I'm pretty sure they all know it's a huge longshot and that the real plan is to aim high for a superstar FA. Even Kobe alluded to the fact that plan B will require patience and he's on board, which should be taken with a huge grain of salt due to his personality but might be a sign that he's acknowledging the plight the Lakers find themselves in right now. They might not have seen Lance or Monroe as good value due to both players having questionable ceilings and may not have fit with what they're trying to build. I know a lot of people think the Lakers need to get some mid-tier talent to attract the superstar FAs they're looking to get in the near future, but it's possible that the front office doesn't agree or at least didn't see Lance or Monroe fitting that role. As for the team they've built for this season, I could actually see it working. Both Lin and Clarkson are big enough to play SG against most rosters in the league, both Kobe and Young can play either SG or SF, and the PF and C positions have become blurred these days. There aren't many true back-to-the-basket centers in the league these days, and both Hill and Sacre are big enough to handle those types when they do come in. Again, I don't think the Lakers are truly aiming to be as competitive as possible, which makes all acquisitions attempts at value grabs. Pick up guys who have potential and come at a reasonable price on contracts that provide a lot of flexibility, keep the ones who show potential after a season and trade away or let go of everyone else. I'm not saying it's going to work or is even the best strategy to go with, but it does make sense to some degree. | ||
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cLutZ
United States19574 Posts
Genius indeed. | ||
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XaI)CyRiC
United States4471 Posts
Random tangent: I don't know how the Sixers can ask their fans to pay for tickets to games this season with a straight face. I understand what the big picture strategy is and they do have some promising talent that may pan out in the future, but what they're doing is a travesty to competitive sports. It's possible that they magically click and have some success next season like a poor man's PHO, but it would be totally accidental and not by design. I wonder how long they'll be able to stick to this "don't worry! it'll all work out!" way of team management before the fans turn on them. | ||
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