2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

i've thought memphis was overachieving for the past few years. maybe i'm wrong about that. if i'm right, they're (past) due for a hiccup. beating them in the playoffs really didn't surprise me much.

 

Shaq said Dallas will win it all

 

Many of the Uber rich do.

 

They are going to crumble now that Dilly Brooks is gone.


I’m all seriousness, even with Ja playing all of the games, they are still pretenders.

 

Someone had enough of Dame?

 

Hey Jimbo you look like a complete jack*** in that stupid beard IMNHO. What psychological problem is it masking for you? Where's abeer for off the cuff analysis here?

 

stotts stepping down is odd. he was supposed to be the one running the offense with griffin focusing on the D. bucks fans are speculating he wasn't seeing eye to eye with griffin

 

Finally dove into NBA stuff this week, a few random thoughts on other West teams:

Rockets - Consensus seems to be that they'll be much improved now that they've brought in some vets. I don't see it. They signed FVV, Brooks, Jeff Green, Reggie Bullock and Jock Landale. I don't see that raising their floor so much that they're no longer in contention for worst team in the West. The Thompson/Green/Whitmore/Smith/Sengun young core is nice, but this is still a very young team. Udoka's whole thing is a coach is that he'll get in your face if you're not giving defensive effort, not sure that will take immediately with these young guys.

Spurs - People are going to tune in to watch Wembanyama and realize its not just him. I'm really high on Vassell, I think he's going to be one of the premier young guys in the league after this year. Sochan is a really interesting player, it looks like they're going to start him at PG in a massive starting lineup. Unfortunately, the Spurs are going to be a problem again soon.

Timberwolves - I keep hearing about how Edwards has now arrived as a superstar after Team USA. Has he really? He put up 18.9 ppg on 47.5% from two and 31% from three. I like Edwards, but I'm not seeing this big leap he's supposedly already made and Gobert is still clogging the lane for him. KAT is still a weirdo that misses a lot of games. They're relying a lot on 36 year old Mike Conley to keep that ill-fitting starting lineup organized, and the guard depth behind Conley and Edwards is pretty bad.

Dallas - I can easily see this being another disaster year. They brought in Grant Williams (good for the C Bags in 2022, was in and out of the rotation in 2023), Seth Curry (very good shooter/offensive player, easy target on defense, Exum (lol), Richaun Holmes (pretty good backup C) and Dereck Lively II (disappointed in his one year at Duke, now being penciled in as a starting center?). They're on the road to losing Luka.

Pelicans and Clippers - They're not fooling me again. I don't want to here anymore about the hypothetical healthy versions of these teams, its not going to happen.

Suns - I've said a few times that the whole "3-star model doesn't work anymore" thing is way overstated. We just haven't seen a well-fitting three-star team since those few games the Nets got together in 2021 when they were blowing everyone away. Unfortunately, I think that Suns offense is going to be ridiculous in the regular season. That said, there seems to be a perception that we match up poorly with the Suns because we don't have the greatest perimeter defenders. That's just not really how defense is played anymore. Team defense is the name of the game, and I think we can bully that Suns team. KD in particular has gotten pushed around by the C Bags and Aaron Gordon his last two playoff series. Suns are my nemesis team this year (besides the C Bags of course).

 

Yeah such an odd time to step down with the season officially starting next week.

 

Damn, I could have easily made that post. Agree 100%. Just adding that Conley is washed, I think he's out of the rotation before Christmas.

Suns are scary, but yeah we are beating them and they are betting too much on health

 

Who is this stupid f***,Why they even discuss this.
Hell nooo

 

Another NBA champion
He played for GSW,but how many people already on the roster ?

 

Little surprised by that one

 

seems there was an incident this week between Stotts and Griffin, according to Shams and Eric Nehm

 

Warriors president Brandon Schneider , I said, 'Hey Mike, what do you think about this in-season tournament?' He said, 'Well, Draymond Green and Chris Paul told me we're going to win it.' I said, 'OK, that's all I needed to know.' "

 

He truly was only king for a day

So it's a loophole to get him a little extra on his G League deal.

Need to dump him STAT. Ham's face when he saw we got a new 6-3 player


Gotta protect him from himself

 

i'm surprised he's never caught on. he looks the part. shrugs.

agree. they won't be embarrassing, but i'll be surprised if they make the play-in.

i don't see vassell as that, and if they play sochan at point, i'd full court press in an nba game. for real. guard him with my pg and dare them to post up sochan as their primary offense.

spurs will be a problem if wemby can stay on the floor. but not next year.

also didn't see the same stuff everyone else did with edwards in the wc. he has been improving each year, though. conley looked ok in the preseason action i saw, tbh. i think he just can't stay on the floor, and that will doom them.

i think you're sleeping on exum--i wouldn't be surprised if he carves out a rotation role there. and lively has apparently earned the starting spot with high hoop iq. but he's incredibly raw and foul prone. i'm pretty skeptical on grant williams as a 30mpg starter. luka's already got a nagging calf thing and the season hasn't started. they might be in trouble again.

as long as the clippers have kawhi and a huge payroll, they'll be competitive. i've never really bought the pels. even when they have all their guys, i don't love the fit. they looked their best with cj taking the lead, and that's not great, imo.

they should be a top-3 seed and probably the favorite to come out of the west. i think both denver and we can potentially beat them, though.

you didn't talk about okc. holmgren looks ready to be a impactful role player right away, imo. maybe a star in the future, but a winning piece right now. i think they're in the playoff mix for sure. if not, i think people need to ask questions about SGA's sudden uberstar status. i also think they will cash in some of those picks to grab a vet or two to make the playoffs (5-8).

i think gs can be better than people think, but they're all getting old now. when they've got everyone, they'll look like worldbeaters, but i'm guessing that will be rare. bottom part of playoff picture(5-8).

sac won't surprise people this year, but they've got continuity and have had a taste of success, so they'll be in the mix (6-9).

memphis will yet again surprise people by basically playing as well without ja as they do with him. middle-tier playoff team (4-7).