2018-19 NBA Thread

Chris Paul, Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers all seem like whiny turds. (That may be unfair to Gordon, but it's probably the nicest thing anyone has said about Paul or Rivers.)

Harden's game is infuriating to watch. I'm tired of watching plays designed solely to get a foul call, particularly from a guy that talented. Also, he looks like a guinea pig.

Mostly it's Paul. And his State Farm ads are the worst.

 

Chris Paul's contract is a whopper, as he appears to be starting to age in dog years.

Chris Paul

I am in the way minority, but I don't mind watching James Harden. He's unique. And talented. I'm not his biggest fan, but he doesn't bother me.

I have a friend who flat out refuses to watch Rockets games because of Harden.

 

Anyone remember back in the day when Al Horford was the Antetenkoumpo stopper?

 

It seems like just yesterday but I think it was all the way back to a week ago Sunday. I love Hot NBA Takes.

 

So the Celtics. What is next? Kyrie leaves and they get better? Hope Giannis and Kawahi leave for the West? The Sixers aren't going anywhere and this was expected to be the Celtics proverbial "window."

 

Can an entire conference be a victim of bad timing? The East finally shed LeBron, probably to the delight of the Raptors and Celtics primarily... and it just looks like Giannis has turned into a monster the very next year. If you have the best player in the conference, it's tough to lose unless 1) the rest of your team is bad, like the early LeBron Cavs' teams or 2) you're going up against teams that are strong from players #1 thru #7 or #8 in the playoffs, like the late 80s and 00s Pistons.

I'm a Celtics fan, and it is somewhat frustrating because there isn't an obvious thing to point a finger at. Like, Heyward had a horrific injury that radically changes his value; before that, it seemed awesome that he would be on the team. I suppose they could have tried going "all in" like the Raptors did and trade for Leonard, but I would still be shocked if he re-signs with Toronto. Kyrie seems like a pain in the ass to deal with, but he's productive in games, and the alternative was keeping Thomas instead of doing that deal. They haven't drafted all great or all bad. It feels like they're at least one All-Star level player short, but hey, all the assets means that they can hopefully acquire one.

I'm biased, but I'd still take their roster and organization over the Sixers - Like, weird shit is going on there, between all of the Fultz drama and Simmons just refusing to shoot or to develop a jumper. I think Leonard leaves, so next year, I think it is Bucks, Celtics (with or without Irving), Raptors and/or Sixers, with the Bucks the clear front-runner there. I've got no clue for how you stop Giannis though, and it'll be interesting to see how the Western Conference winner handles him.

 

In hindsight, and I'm not sure what the Spurs were asking for, but I think the Celtics should have made the deal for Kawhi, mainly because he has such great results and experience in the playoffs. I know Kyrie has some good playoff results as well but he also had LeBron to take a lot of the pressure. Kawhi seems to know how to perform when his team absolutely needs to win a game and that's what the Celtics were missing last night. No one on the floor was able to match what Giannis was giving Milwaukee.

 

Maybe that Nets trade corrupted Ainge's perception of fair value. Not every guy on the other end of the phone is eager to give up $1.00 for $0.17 and bubble gum wrapper.

 

I'm not sure if the Celtics and Spurs ever kicked the tires on a trade - The Spurs seemed like they wanted to compete this year, so I'm not sure how you get that done, unless the Celtics just said "fuck it" and gave them Brown and/or Tatum. (Their established players, Irving and Horford, probably didn't have as much value to the Spurs as they would other teams.) This time last year, Tatum looked like a potential All-NBA player because he was 19 and a cog in a playoff rotation, and teams had no effing clue if Leonard was even healthy.

And that last part - Who *can* match Giannis at this point? Horford was doing a decent job at first, but I think Giannis might be in the Harden, Curry, Durant category now, where if he's on, well, you just can't stop him. You just hope you slow him down a bit, and that his supporting cast can't hit.