With the Thunder in full tank mode… I find myself like a little kid in a candy store picking other games from the rest of the league to satiate my NBA fix.
The late game last night with Golden State hosting the LA Clippers was excellent and had the intensity and finish of a second round playoff game.
I love the manner in which Terrance Mann is evolving on the NBA scene. He brings instant electricty to the court for the Clippers. Plus…Steph and Paul George were both excellent last night. I’m happy Reggie has found his place with the Clippers.
Kind of like Tyler Herro for Miami who had an excellent game last night as the Heat routed Milwaukee. In 24 minutes…Tyler scored 27 points, grabbed 6 boards, and dished out 5 assists. This was a nice way for Tyler to start bouncing back from last year’s disappointing finish. Giannis didn’t play, but still a nice night for Tyler. Tyler is too good of a player to not learn from last season.
The league should be absolutely lit this season with no real favorite to win the West or the East. The parity party which was last year’s NBA Playoffs has left us with a slew of entertaining teams to watch this season.
In the East… I’d probably go Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Miami, and Atlanta as my top four picks. In the West…I’d probably go one team deeper with Utah, Denver, Lakers, Golden State, and Phoenix in no real specific order.
If Klay Thompson comes back in January and can be 80% of what he was previously … I think Golden State would be my pick considering what a good job they did this off season in upgrading their roster.
If Jamal Murray comes back for Denver… I’d have the Nugetts second on my list heading into the playoffs.
As far as the current Lakers with four players on their roster who just made the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players of All-Time List…color me nervous with the Lakers having Russell and Rondo on the same team, let alone on the floor together. If LeBron can pull this off and win another ring then I’d move him in front of Michael as the greatest of all-time.
Congrats to Kevin, James, and Russell for making the 75 Greatest List. Looking back with a bit of sadness from an NBA historical perspective…one certainly would have liked to have seen one more season wth Harden in Oklahoma City.
It almost makes this notion that OKC would tank for three seasons again like they did previously somewhat comical when you think about it. OKC back starting in Seattle when they began tanking drafted Durant and Jeff Green in Tank Year 1. Then drafted Westbrook and Serge in Tank Year 2. Then in Year 3 of the master plan Presti drafted Harden.
So explain to me as a fan/blogger/ or whatever what good does it do to follow this path again when after it went almost perfectly the first time the Thunder then went cheap and basically traded away a player who just made the NBA’s list of the 75 Greatest Players of All-Time.
I sit here thinking of the Sam Anderson’s book specificlly remembering the part where OKC voluntarily became the guinea pig city for the effect of sonic booms back in the 60’s with Operation Bongo.
What good does it do to tank and line up three stars if you’re not going to pay the money to keep them?
Maybe you try a slightly different model. Maybe it’s a two star model. Maybe you already have your two stars in Shai and Josh Giddy.
Bottomline is Darius Bazely and Poku need to turn themselves into some form of functional rotation players. You should never go whiff in back to back years wherever you’re picking in the draft.
You know, actually…I’m starting to feel as if this year’s draft wasn’t bad given what we’ve seen so far from Josh, Tre, JRE, and Aaron. A possible star in Giddy and three nice role players filling three different roles which won’t overlap skill set wise. Aaron Wiggins is a real sleeper is my feel right now. A possible two way Sixth Man who embraced this role at Maryland. But of course…he didn’t have an agent when he was a Terp.
Thunder at Houston tonight to play a team in the Rockets who are almost as bad as the Thunder. Vegas has the Rockets at -4 as a home favorite.
This is where the Thunder could actually win a game if they’re not careful.
We’ll see if Coach D learned anything from the Boston and Clipper games last spring.