NBA 2015-16 General discussion

[ua]

Now that all of our fantasy draft is in here are complete we can declassify many of our thoughts and share them on The subject of basketball.
As always managers from all three leagues are welcome to participate.

Here's a smattering of story lines going into the start of the season…

As a Spurs fan, and I hope this doesn't make me a bad person, but I laughed out loud when I heard Derek Fisher got the tar beat out of him by Matt Barnes. I don't know if it is true, but I hope so.

One big story this off-season was DeAndre Jordan faking out Dallas and staying in Los Angeles. I might not like the Mavericks but they didn't deserve to get that screwed.

I think Atlanta will take a step backward this year. Losing Carroll is going to affect them more than they think.

A lot to watch in Orlando this year. I think they can make a push to get into the playoffs.

Miami is not looking too bad this year, I think they are definitely in the playoffs. But they need to press the brakes a little bit on this championship talk.

Anthony Davis is poised to put up historic numbers this year but I think New Orleans still struggles to get into the playoffs. I think that eighth spot in the west will be a dog fight between New Orleans, Utah, and maybe Sacramento.

I might be the only spur fan but I'm not yet sold on this Lamarcus Aldrich deal. Not that I don't think he is good, but the real problem the Spurs have is at point guard. Tony is too old and has too much mileage. Four of the last five years Parker has been injured in the playoffs and the one year he didn't get injured we won the championship. You would think that all of the other parts of the team would just make up for the loss, and normally they do, but for the sake of the playoffs when Parker gets hurt… It's over. I think Tony needs to be rested this regular season and rested a lot.

Of course Golden State is the odds-on favorite to win the championship again and I can't say I entirely disagree with that.

Chicago is always interesting. The early reports on Hoi ball are positive.



All that and a bunch of other stuff happened. Whatever you guys want to ponder on.

[spurs champs]

UA I agree with you on not liking LMA. I think the Spurs needed more of true big man and disagree with you on a PG. While I agree with parker getting old and needing more rest I think the league is also going back to being more of a big league player. We needed someone to compliment Tim though and not replace him. I also like Macculm and am hoping that he can eventually replace parker so he should be able to give him solid rest with mills. As far as bigs I would have wanted Greg Monroe. And for cheaper players I would have like Rolo and then the surprise player would have been Cole Aldrich. I really think he can be a good solid player with rebounds blpcks and sometimes points.
I dont think Dallas Deserved what happened to them. Unlike most Spurs fans I dont have a problem with Dallas. I think Cuban has actually done a lot for the league adn wants to win more then he sees it as strictly a business.
Back to LMA. I could see him being a slightly better version of RJ. You remember how excited we were that he was coming here and then he didnt fit the system. I see a LMA fitting a little better then that.

[ua]

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that I don't like Lamarcus, but you hit the nail on the head on my fears being Richard Jefferson-based. If RJ taught us anything it's that it's better to wait and see for ourselves how well the chemistry meshes. Lma is a better player now then Jefferson ever was though so hopefully this is just all in our heads. I want him to work out so bad, and I think he will, but I want to see it for myself for a little while before I finalize judgment.

I like Ray McCallum but I don't know if I see future franchise point guard in the cards for him. I think it's going to have to be somebody else.

And I have to admit Mark Cuban has grown on me over the years. The Mavs are a fun team to love to hate. Spurs mavs Games are always a blast.

[spurs champs]

It not so much as I dont like him I just see other people that would have fit our team better. I hope he works out too but I see him more as a replacement not a compliment.

[InIt2WinIt]

New daily site Moneyball.com AU for u aussies enjoy

[spurs champs]

With them changing the schedule It seems there are less days of everyone playing and several players sitting on the bench. This makes it easier to set lineups and will also see who can draft deep players.

[MelbFORCE]

That was truly awesome and glad to have watched the finals except for game 2

Will always be a Detroit fan but have always admired LeBron, 1-3 down against the 73-9 record breaking Warriors and pulls off the very unlikely title for the Cavs

Now to sit back and watch Simmons go #1 and Olympics

[spurs champs]

Some big trades happening in the NBA. They both should help my PG position in the keeper league.

[MelbFORCE]

Indiana re-tool with Teague and Thad Young

That will shake up the East a bit...Turner/Young/George/Ellis/Teague

[Deleted]

After studying this draft, and with the draft in the books, I'm keen to see what the bucks fans here think of their team taking Thon Maker. One would have thought that Milwaukee would have learned their lesson with Bobust. I guess they had no choice with Poeltl off the board. Just can't see Maker being that great. I mean, big African born shot blockers rarely make it in the league. I see this as a Hasheem Thabeet situation.

Philly came out with a solid draft. Like the pick of Furkan and Luwawu for where they got them. Furkan could give them the shooting they need. But this still looks like it'll struggle shooting the rock. Saric and Simmons are very much the same style of player,

Boston made no sense taking brown at 3, especially with Crowder coming off a career season. I think their draft was pretty crap at best.

Suns getting both Bender at Chriss. One has to assume that they took both in hopes one would strike gold.

No idea what the Wolves are doing. I mean even if they move Rubio, they need outside scoring, something Dunn doesn't provide and something both Hield and Murray does provide.

Kings were hilarious, if I were Boogie I'd be asking to get out.

Raps taking Poeltl made sense, but it still felt like a wasted pick when both he and Jonas won't be able to play together, and their need for a PF far outweighs their need for anything else. I'd have gone either Sabonis or Ellenson.

Spurs once again find a gem in Dejounte Murray. Also love the Damien Jones pick by GSW.

I think force hit the nail on the head. I reckon the Pacers have improved a hell of a lot, I'd now officially slot them into the second best team in the East behind Cleveland. George, Turner, Teague, Ellis and Thadd is a nice starting 5. It'll be interesting to see how 3 ball dominant players can co-exist (PG13, Teague and Monta) .

[spurs champs]

I am wondering how good Simmons will Do in Philly. He has so much competition for PT there that he may not get a lot. He may be a good player but to be of relevance you still have to get the PT.

[Deleted]

Yeah I'm still a little confused as to why the Sixers took him when they needed a shooter. Ingram would have made more sense as Saric plays the point forward role as well. Throw in the fact they have 3 bigs all fighting for time, it's a log jam.

They definitely need to add some shooting at both the 1 and 2 through the FA. With Ben there, being a primary ball handler, if I were Philly, I'd surround him with shooting now.

[pm24]

I think it's too early to say Simmons is a bad shooter. He didn't take many three's or jumpers last season, but when his team was down in Aus prior to the college season he was taking and making jumpers and 3's. It's not his strength, but Lebron wasn't a strong outside shooter in the early days either.
Gotta remember he's only 19!!! In two years time he'll still be college age and has a decade plus left in the league. He's got time to strengthen his jumper if it is a weakness. Remember, Leonard was renowned as much of a shooter when he got drafted by the Spurs either.

As for the rest of the draft, the Celtics pick really seemed to be a case of a good plan back firing. That plan was to use the pick to get a player. I still don't know why Philly and Boston didn't do a trade swapping Noel for pick 3. In this draft, Noel would be worth that pick. He's at least a better add for the celtics than Brown, particularly given they've already got Crowder. The Philly probably picks Dunn which makes it a great trade for both teams. Celtics got greedy and it backfired.

I love what the Suns did. They took advantage of a very odd Kings front office and got two high potential bigs with slightly different skill sets which could prove to be solid building blocks for them. They seem keen to move Either Bledsoe or Knight in the offseason, and I can only imagine it'll be for a wing given they've got Booker at the 2, just drafted two pf's and then the developing Len at the C. Not a bad young core they're building.

Detroit got great value with Ellenson at 18. If he develops, putting him next to Drummond could really help that team.

I don't mind Milwaukee's pick of Maker either. It appears that after Poetl that many of the players available were good not great and could become solid pro's. Milwaukee's pick of Maker reminds of their pick of Giannis. Who knows if the result will be the same, but they could look very smart if Maker becomes even half the player Giannis is turning into.

[Reavers]

I'm liking the Thon pick. When Chad ford first said that the Bucks liked Thon and Dejounte I wondered if we couldn't move down and get both although I figured Thon would go late lotto and as it turns out the Nets traded for 20 to get Thon. Also funny when I watched Dejounte I was like if he can make a Kawhi level leap in his jumper he will be pretty good.
Simmons jumper form looks much better in the workout footage.

[Deleted]

Yeah the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Outside of Poeltl, bucks had no real option at for a C and that was their biggest need in draft. The kid is hell raw though, but in the end Milwaukee did what they needed to do, draft a position of need and an upside player.