2014-2015 NBA Ramblings

[Hammer]

i bet indy wishes they got back lance pants now.

[Kingdom]

I avoided the Kevin Ware injury for months before someone snuck it on as a threadjack on S/R. I'm pretty sure I can avoid this one, too.

(And Jason Kendall's ankle...avoided that one for a while, too.)

Don't. I gagged. Just not... right.

[LJMets1989]

Timberwolves owner says Kevin Love will likely be done by the end of the month. Conveniently, he named August 23 or 24 as the date when it could happen.

Wait. That's like, the exact date that Andrew Wiggins is allowed to be dealt. I wonder if that's a coincidence.

[Hammer]

alleged handshake agreement between cleveland, minny and philly that would send wiggins and thad young to minnesota, love to cleveland and anthony bennett to philly. im sure theres gonna be picks and contracts involved.

[Kingdom]

Yay, Philly is going to win less than 10 games!

[Kingdom]

Indiana Pacers

Hibbert - West - Miles - Stuckey - G.Hill
Mahinmi/Scola/Rudez/Copeland/S.Hill/Watson

Let me start before George was ever lost for the season. Not resigning Lance Stephenson was crushing. They had to bring in 3 guys just to try to replace him. The problem is, 3 guys won't replace Stephenson. They signed Stuckey, who can handle the ball some but is not a good shooter. They brought in CJ Miles, who is mostly just a 3 point shooter. And then there's Damjan Rudez, who I hope his first name is pronounced Damn Jan!... that was just to replace Stephenson. And now George is gone. Indiana had a lot of holes last season but when you have two really good 2-way wing players in George and Stephenson, you end up covering a lot of holes. One of which, is that you back a backup combo guard acting as your starting PG. Now you have to figure out who starts in George's place. There's several options but they're mostly unproven or used to being a reserve. And none bring the defensive ability that George had. That's a lot to replace. My suggestion, just punt the season. Look, the East got better as a whole and while it's not the West, it's now 8-10 teams of pure cluster fuckery. Could the Pacers be one of the last teams in? Barring miracles and the best coaching job EVER, no. Rodney Stuckey would have to become a good shooter overnight and Roy Hibbert would have to become Yao Ming-ish overnight, just to have any real hope. George will be back. But even with George, this team has a lot of issues. I'd suggest attempting to reload over the course of the season by trading West and Scola, maybe someone loses their shit and trades for Hibbert. Get a high lottery pick and then rebuild around George. I will be shocked if this team wins 40 games.

[Kingdom]

New Orleans Pelicans

Asik - Davis - Evans - Gordon - Holiday
Withey/Ryan Anderson/D.Miller/Fredette/Rivers/Russ Smith

The Pelicans have a realistic shot at the playoffs if... Holiday, Gordon, Davis, and Ryan Anderson all stay reasonably healthy. Which is a massive if because there is a lot of talent here. The addition of Asik gives them a hell of a interior defense, not to mention Withey and possibly Patric Young off the bench give them the ability to block a lot of shots. Evans may have finally figured life out in the second half of last season. Unfortunately that role was as a guard, often times lead guard, with all of the injuries. He's a huge wild card. Anderson is also a huge wild card. His ability to shoot and crash the offensive glass is often times underrated. They do need a backup PG. Russ Smith could be fun off the bench, but is not a real point. Austin Rivers is one of the most useless players in the NBA. Jimmer Fredette may get some burn for once and give a lack of shooting amongst guards, he might be needed for once. Best case scenario, which is, this team staying healthy, they can make the playoffs just because of the talent level. Davis is a star. Holiday could be a star. And Gordon has always had the talent to be an impact player on both ends of the floor if he ever stayed healthy. Perfect season: 5-8 seed. Realistic season: they get closer to the playoffs but fall short.

[Kingdom]

Portland Trail Blazers

Lopez - Aldridge - Batum - Matthews - Lillard
Kaman/Freeland/Robinson/Wright/Barton/Crabbe/McCollum/Blake

I love this team. Mostly because they'll have the exact same lineup and the bench only swaps Mo Williams for Steve Blake and Chris Kaman. The lineup works perfectly because Robin Lopez can be just a bundle of energy and play defense while Aldridge can be a match up nightmare for everyone. Lopez might be underrated now. Did you know he shot over 80% from the line? That just means you cannot foul their bigs (Kaman is a career 75% shooter). They added a very level headed but fierce competitor in Blake. I know Mo Williams was a big scoring punch off the bench but Kaman and Blake can more than make up for it. Plus they have 3 young guys that could easily replace him by themselves (McCollum being healthy could be a crazy x-factor). The lineup's biggest flaw is that Lillard is one of the worst defensive points in the land. They have everything else you need, even the French defensive minded version of Toni Kukoc (Batum). If Lillard steps up his consistency and keeps the trend of turnovers going down, they may take another step. They'll fight for a top 4 seed, realistically I think they settle in as a 5 MAYBE 6. I wouldn't be shocked if they got in the top four though.

[Kingdom]

Toronto Raptors

Valanciunas - A.Johnson - Ross - DeRozan - Lowry
Nogueira/Hayes/Patterson/Hansbrough/Caboclo/Fields/Lou Williams/Vasquez

I listed Caboclo because it's expected that'll at least start off in the D-League but he wasn't too bad in the summer league by all accounts, so who knows. Same for Nogueira, who just signed. If he's in the rotation, playing next to Valanciunas could be a lot of fun to watch. Suddenly Toronto is weirdly interesting, largely because of all the crazy athletes they've amassed. And they still have good rotation players in the mix like Patterson, Hayes and Vasquez. What this team ends up doing largely depends on the development of Val, Ross, and DeRozan. The Nets exposed their lack of defense in the playoffs. With all of the skills this team may possess, there's no reason why they can't improve to be at least average. This team took off when it ditched Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry became a bit of a Tony Parker lite. If Lowry continues with that frame of mind and type of play, they should be able to improve. DeRozan continues to gradually improve each season but is still a shaky perimeter shooter. If he fixes that or goes back to shooting them less frequently, his efficiency will automatically improve. They have depth and now they have some playoff experience, they, like just about every East team except for a few, could push for a top four seed. They WILL be a top four seed if the young guns take another step.

[Hammer]

looking at the pacers bench you have there... theyre not gonna be playing much small ball. the only two "small" guys they have, that can back up at the 1-3, is watson and copeland. thats an awful lot of minutes floating around for stuckey and cj miles playing multiple roles. id say they arent a playoff team, but if hibbert can revert back to defensive player of the year form... we just watched what noah did last year with a mediocre team around him... the pacers still might be a playoff team in a miserable east. i cant help but feel theyd be better off just tanking, trying to get something for west and maybe hill, but keeping around hibbert [how many true bigs are their really out there?], and getting a nice pick up at the top next year.

i still got my power rankings in the east at something like... cavs, bulls, wizards, raptors, bobcats as my top 5, with the knicks unranked because im still delusional.

[Hammer]

by the way, becky hammon as an assistant on the spurs. if it was about 20 other organizations in the league, id laugh heartily that they were just doing it for some pub. however, since its the spurs, i cant see how it will fail.

you may ask, how could it ever possibly fail to a level past a firing? just imagine the potential if she was hired on the jailblazers, or the isiah thomas ran knicks, or a team that featured latrell sprewell and all the many possibilities that couldve occured.

[Kingdom]

Wizards, Bulls, Bobcats, Heat, Cavs, Raptors, Hawks, Nets, Bucks IMO are better than the current edition of the Pacers. I'm taking a gigantic leap with Milwaukee but I like the potential (it could also go horribly wrong too). Noah is an all around player, Hibbert is just a stiff. I think he's going to be even more exposed when wings blow by Stuckey/Copeland/Rudez/Miles platter of crapmuffins

[Hammer]

heat and hawks i agree. the bucks i like, they intrigue me all over the place... mainly parker, giannis and their rim protectors, especially if larry sanders isnt totally insane. the nets are a complete meh team to me, unless deron williams shows any attempt at not being a lighter skinned version of ray felton. they lost livingston, blatche and pierce, and didnt replace them with anything. the only positive guy on their roster is another year of development for plumlee.

[Hammer]

oh i forgot they got jarrett jack. i guess that helps, i like jarrett jack. his skill set, and his best abilities, kinda mirror johnson and williams though.

[Kingdom]

Nets won't be pretty but they do get Lopez back and they hired a competent coach. They could be an 8th seed. Who knows. Deron is as always the wild card. And I'd assume one if the foreigners will be at SF..AK47/Teletovic/Karasev. Weird team. 27 mill in their three PGs