NBA 2025-2026

adexkola said:
Detroit need more from the team around Cade.

If you're Duren how do you justify asking for a big ass contract after pulling a no show this series?
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Cade's taken 22 shots so far and hit 7 of them, so he's not exactly setting the world on fire either.
 
charlton66 said:
Cade's taken 22 shots so far and hit 7 of them, so he's not exactly setting the world on fire either.
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True but

1. He's owed one of these games, for the most part he has had a great series I think
2. Paolo has been worse as Orlando's "star" player the difference is that he has more players on his end who are supporting.
 
Sarni said:
Yeah and meanwhile Hornets are fun as hell. They could give Pistons a series too, could see this going 6 or even 7. Magic would lose in 5 max.
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I was so wrong about that. 3-1 Orlando already and they’ve been the far better team. Detroit have been pretty lackluster too though.
 
adexkola said:
Why? He's done a great job since Billups got jammed up by the feds (@Sarni feel free to rubbish this take)
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he’s actually done a pretty good job. but he just lost two back-to-back games in a similar fashion. and the last game was even worse. It shows him to be out of his depth and I just know with the new ownership and all this talk about wanting to make moves. I just don’t see how he fits into it.
 
entropy said:
he’s actually done a pretty good job. but he just lost two back-to-back games in a similar fashion. and the last game was even worse. It shows him to be out of his depth and I just know with the new ownership and all this talk about wanting to make moves. I just don’t see how he fits into it.
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He's an interim coach, and not a highly experienced one at that.

If I'm an owner, I'm keeping him around for a while because he seems to be able to get the young players to buy in. They're way ahead of schedule in their rebuild.
 
elmo said:
He's an interim coach, and not a highly experienced one at that.

If I'm an owner, I'm keeping him around for a while because he seems to be able to get the young players to buy in. They're way ahead of schedule in their rebuild.
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the new owner has already started searching for coaching options on the down low. which is stupid af and an unnecessary distraction. when everyone should be talking about the blazers making the playoffs for the first time in five years, we are stuck with reports of how fecking cheap tom dundon is.

I wouldn’t mind tiago coming back tbh. get him more personnel help and he should be fine.
 
Knicks better finish it in Atlanta. Should've never lost those two games.
 
elmo said:
He's an interim coach, and not a highly experienced one at that.

If I'm an owner, I'm keeping him around for a while because he seems to be able to get the young players to buy in. They're way ahead of schedule in their rebuild.
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I’m not sure how the rebuild even unfolds from now on. Though the team is still relatively young, I don’t think there’s huge untapped potential there and it’s still lacking a lead superstar. Scoot is Scoot, he will have great games which will deceive you into thinking he might grow into something more but will inevitably follow up with lousy showings not long after. Sharpe has been in the league for 4 years and you pretty much know what he is. Avdija’s development since joining has been tremendous but at best he should be your second best player on a contender, basically your Siakam. Clingan has room to grow but he’s again more of a complimentary role player rather than a potential superstar.

It doesn’t help that we’ve never drafted higher than 3rd and even during the barren days we only got one top 5 pick. Now that this phase is over we are probably going to be picking 11-20 for the foreseeable future (and not at all this year) so we’d need to strike gold in that range to elevate us to more than a decent regular season team, first round exit kind of team.

Maybe I’m just a bit deflated after games 3 and 4.
 
Sarni said:
I’m not sure how the rebuild even unfolds from now on. Though the team is still relatively young, I don’t think there’s huge untapped potential there and it’s still lacking a lead superstar. Scoot is Scoot, he will have great games which will deceive you into thinking he might grow into something more but will inevitably follow up with lousy showings not long after. Sharpe has been in the league for 4 years and you pretty much know what he is. Avdija’s development since joining has been tremendous but at best he should be your second best player on a contender, basically your Siakam. Clingan has room to grow but he’s again more of a complimentary role player rather than a potential superstar.

It doesn’t help that we’ve never drafted higher than 3rd and even during the barren days we only got one top 5 pick. Now that this phase is over we are probably going to be picking 11-20 for the foreseeable future (and not at all this year) so we’d need to strike gold in that range to elevate us to more than a decent regular season team, first round exit kind of team.

Maybe I’m just a bit deflated after games 3 and 4.
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Unlucky. You did well. I mean, you had magnet ball for most of the series, so, there's not much more you can do.
 
There’s a chance but not a great one without Ant imo.

Disappointed we’re going back to Houston. Really don’t fancy a Game 7 if push comes to shove.
 
OKC and Spurs seem to be a cut above the rest. The latter don't have the necessary experience yet, but it feels more like a matter of when and not if they'll win the championship. The East is a bit like the PL in an ebb period. Interesting and unpredictable mainly because everyone in their own special way is a bit crap and can't do nothing about it.
 
On a side note, popped up this morning on YT for me Penny compilation. Weirdly and you can see it also in the comments, everyone absolutely loved him. Shame for the injuries, could have been one of the greats.

 
Hawks being down by 50 before the half is diabolical work :lol:
 
Denver need to trade Murray if they want to have another chance at winning the title. Jokic might be bad defensively but he makes it up by being great offensively, Murray hasn't countered his poor defense by being terrible offensively. He has been great in the playoffs since 2023 now.

And giving that massive contract to Christian Braun at the start of the year, yesh.
 
hasanejaz88 said:
Denver need to trade Murray if they want to have another chance at winning the title. Jokic might be bad defensively but he makes it up by being great offensively, Murray hasn't countered his poor defense by being terrible offensively. He has been great in the playoffs since 2023 now.

And giving that massive contract to Christian Braun at the start of the year, yesh.
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Murray's been brutal in the playoffs lately.

I don't know if there's a trade out there that even improves them by trading Murray. They'd have to take a risk on someone, but I don't see any risks they could take.

That Braun contract though is absolutely brutal. 125 mil for 5 years for a basket cutter. Also, Aaron Gordon can't stay healthy lately at all.

Jokic also dipped a bit slightly after his knee injury this season. He might start slowly declining.

I think their window for contending has closed. They have no assets to improve.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
The Spurs match up really well against OKC and Wemby loves beating Chet.

Not a foregone conclusion yet.
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I just don’t see it happening, most underrated sports team in the World OKC. Don’t get the credit they deserve, but they are one of the most outstanding teams in the NBA ever.
 
Rams said:
I just don’t see it happening, most underrated sports team in the World OKC. Don’t get the credit they deserve, but they are one of the most outstanding teams in the NBA ever.
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What a load of bollocks. They’re given all the credit they deserve at the moment, but you can’t place a team with one title (for now) amongst the best teams ever in the league.
 
People give them credit, they are firm favorites.. Spurs like have their number but they never been in deep playoff run. I do think they might beat OKC but genetally it would be surprise.

One of best teams ever is nonsense though.
 
Philly is dark horse this year. If they beat Boston in Boston i can see them in big final.
 
The East is wide open yeah, while you could pretty safely bet your house on Spurs vs OKC in the WCF.
 
Rams said:
I just don’t see it happening, most underrated sports team in the World OKC. Don’t get the credit they deserve, but they are one of the most outstanding teams in the NBA ever.
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I mean, the Spurs did beat them four times in a row this season.

Seems to have largely escaped folks memory. We're not just a match for them. We're a terrible match for them.
 
Hoof the ball said:
I mean, the Spurs did beat them four times in a row this season.

Seems to have largely escaped folks memory. We're not just a match for them. We're a terrible match for them.
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Even before playoff my opinion was that only two things can stop Spurs. Wemby's injury and Denver.
 
You guys are doing too much. The winner of the WCF will come from this Lakers/Rockets series ;)
 
This is the first conflicting matchup in my adult life. The franchise that made me watch the NBA(the Spurs) against the franchise that kept me engaged(the Wolves).
 
Hoof the ball said:
I mean, the Spurs did beat them four times in a row this season.

Seems to have largely escaped folks memory. We're not just a match for them. We're a terrible match for them.
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Regular season and playoffs is very different.
 
What an embarrassment for the Nuggets. It’s one thing to lose to Minnesota who are perennial playoff risers, it’s another to lose to them after their franchise player, best guard and best bench player went down with injuries.
 
Revan said:
Regular season and playoffs is very different.
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Granted, but, this Spurs team are collectively defensive demons. They contest everything, they're young, we've got points all over the bench, we play with absolute intensity, which is the main reason why people differentiate playoff and regular, but we already play with playoff like intensity anyway. That's how we had the best run in the NBA from January onwards.

Add to that, Wemby won unanimous DPOY and 2nd in MVP despite averaging less than 30 minutes per game and playing 6-7 minutes per game less than Shai.

We almost took their no. 1 seed with Wemby stepping out of games with 29 minutes played. We won't have any problems with playoff intensity. Wemby, Castle, Harper, Fox, Keldon, etc, they're not passive players or mentally weak.

I'm not saying this is 2014 Spurs, but we're just as good as OKC.
 
Hoof the ball said:
Granted, but, this Spurs team are collectively defensive demons. They contest everything, they're young, we've got points all over the bench, we play with absolute intensity, which is the main reason why people differentiate playoff and regular, but we already play with playoff like intensity anyway. That's how we had the best run in the NBA from January onwards.

Add to that, Wemby won unanimous DPOY and 2nd in MVP despite averaging less than 30 minutes per game and playing 6-7 minutes per game less than Shai.

We almost took their no. 1 seed with Wemby stepping out of games with 29 minutes played. We won't have any problems with playoff intensity. Wemby, Castle, Harper, Fox, Keldon, etc, they're not passive players or mentally weak.

I'm not saying this is 2014 Spurs, but we're just as good as OKC.
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You're not wrong, but there's still a difference between playing with 'playoff intensity' in the regular season and being in the pits of hell during an intense playoff series against another top team, who have more playoff experience.

I acknowledge having Wemby alone makes you an entirely different animal than last season's Rockets but what you said there I said about the Rockets almost word for word last season. We were the 2 seed, defensive demons, young, fast and athletic and play with playoff intensity all season. But we ran into an experienced top team who stayed composed under pressure and we didn't.
 
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Sarni said:
What an embarrassment for the Nuggets. It’s one thing to lose to Minnesota who are perennial playoff risers, it’s another to lose to them after their franchise player, best guard and best bench player went down with injuries.
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Lets not forget Denver were also without Gordon, their best defender, and Peyton Watson, their second best defender and third scorer, for much of the series. Doesn't remove the responsibility of Murray to perform better but I also think Denver's secondary players, liked Braun and Johnson, also didn't step up while we saw Dossumu and McDaniels play superbly.
 
WeePat said:
You're not wrong, but there's still a difference between playing with 'playoff intensity' in the regular season and being in the pits of hell during an intense playoff series against another top team, who have more playoff experience.

I acknowledge having Wemby alone makes you an entirely different animal than last season's Rockets but what you said there I said about the Rockets almost word for word last season. We were the 2 seed, defensive demons, young, fast and athletic and play with playoff intensity all season. But we ran into an experienced top team who stayed composed under pressure and we didn't.
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A fair point, with one caveat.

The Rockets last year finished 52-30 at 2nd seed.

The Rockets finished this year at 52-30 record again but at 5th seed.

Spurs finished 62-20 this year with Wemby missing 18 games. We won 12 of those, which included most of the top seeds in both east and west.

Experience aside, we're a different animal than the Rockets were last year. Just to illustrate this.....

We were mere 10 Harrison Barnes points away from being the only team in NBA history to have eight players average more than 10 ppg all season.

Not even OKC's finest had that level of depth this season, or ever.

I realise I'm blowing our own horn, but I should. It's a stat that mainstream hasn't picked up on, but you can bet if it was the Warriors or the Lakers we'd never hear the end of how they almost made history.
 
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DutchSerb said:
Knicks better finish it in Atlanta. Should've never lost those two games.
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Was looking at scores last night and did a double take at the Knicks game somewhere in the second quarter :lol:

All things considered they should be very disappointed if they don't make a finals appearance this year. Their strongest competition is a Boston team that relies too much on the 3 shot falling to be competitive, and that assumes they close out game 7
 
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