Running 2014-15 NBA Thread

Way early but the hometown GSWs are fun to watch and playing well. Curry is, well Curry; Klay Thompson has elevated his game to near All-Star status; Bogut is one tough guy in the middle; and Draymond Green is the ultimate glue guy, wait he's already playing next to the ultimate glue guy, Igoudala. Plus the GSWs have made the rare move of firing a pretty good coach and finding someone to take them even farther up the road; Kerr is a bright, young mind. Jackson will always get credit for transforming the mindset of the team to a tough, defensive club but his offensive scheme (slowdown, ISO/hero ball) left a great deal to be desired. Kerr and his staff show signs of getting the offense to maximize their assets.

 

Lakers: 0-5.

Derrick Rose: hurt both ankles, again.

Rockets 5-0. KIA Shootaround folks whispered Dwight and MVP in the same sentence before one of them said the real MVP on the team would be Harden.

Avery Johnson's accent needs its own pregame show.

 

One of Doris Burke's hoop idols growing up was Kelly Tripucka.

 

I have not totally given up on Lakers not being a terrible team (I think that's a triple negative, or, as we call it, an Aikman). Meaning, they are bad, no doubt. But maybe not this bad. Their schedule was brutal to start: Houston, Clippers, GS, Phoenix twice. I think they will cobble a little something together. Also, Deadspin writes 2,000 words after every loss about how terrible Byron Scott's theories are (about threes), yet they're averaging 102, 12th in league. The offense, as archaic as it is, is not the issue. And Kobe will entertain me all year.

Love the Wolves early. Fun to watch, some interesting, weird pieces.

Cavs will surely put it together -- and in the East, they could start 1-14 and be two games out of 1st seed still -- but that doesn't change fact LeBron has looked absolutely pedestrian so far and is physically not doing what he's done in the past. Weight loss or wanting the other players to learn to step up...whatever the case there's something off. Meaning he'll probably go for 38-10-10 Friday in Denver.

 

Golic and Simmons making love to each other.

http://deadspin.com/bill-simmons-goes-on-twitter-rant-calls-out-espn-and-m-1655523561?rev=1415298055318&utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

 

Part of the reason Lebron's looked pedestrian is because his guards aren't passing the ball. Cavs had only six assists the entire game last night, and four of those six came from Lebron. And Kyrie Irving has not had a single assist in over six quarters (yet he's forked up 36 shots during that period).

If the Cavs are ever gonna reach their potential Irving and Dion Waiters need to re-adjust that shoot-first mentality. Utterly inexcusable for the starting backcourt of a team that features Lebron and Love in the front court to have such paltry assist numbers thus far.

 

1) Lakers finally won.

2) Love to the Lakers? http://dimemag.com/2014/11/report-kevin-love-seriously-considering-opting-summer-join-lakers/

 

Saw a great stat Saturday night. Klay Thompson went 3 for 16 and 0 for 6 on 3-pointers and still finished plus-28.

 

Love will opt out and so will Lebron. Everyone who has the chance to opt out under the new cap is going to do it. That much is almost certain. The rest of it is just baseless conjecture.

 

The Bucks are threatening to win consecutive games for the first time since March 17 and 19 of 2013. They never did win consecutive games last season.

The stretch of 105 games without winning two in a row is an NBA record. Clips went 100 between '86 and '87 and Nuggets went 98 between '97 and '98.

Even the 1972-73 Sixers won two in a row.

 

Interesting footnote last night as Kobe set the career record for missed field goals. "Shooting guard, 19th year," he said after running his total to 13,421.

The previous record-holder (13,417) makes a very good trivia question.

 

John Havlicek.