Board 8 > NBA discussion topic 2: the bad teams are kinda good?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Orlando, Detroit and Hayward-less Boston are tied for the best record in the East. Memphis and the Clippers are tops in the West. Cleveland's in 10th place despite one of the softest schedules in the league. the conensus 4 best west teams all have 3 losses and have looked kinda bad at various points. they've also looked really good sometimes, like Golden State's destruction of the Clippers last night which has to be the most impressive game played so far this season.

basketball is crazy early on, and that's good!
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Basketball so much fun thus far.

Tonight, O-K-C!
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Wait this topic title almost gave me a heart attack from the thought that the Mavs weren't trash

It's ok though, the world isn't quite falling apart yet.
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well not ALL the bad teams are kinda good

just some of them
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yeah kings, mavs, bulls and hawks are bad. the knicks might be okay if KP is as legit as he seems and the suns are bad but at least playing hard. we'll see teams start to tank in a month or two but for now, most everyone seems like they have a shot at the playoffs.
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oh and the lakers are bad too
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Orlandos talent is starting to develop and Pistons are starting to be healthy. Grizzlies didnt need all those guys who left and have a pretty deep roster. All three have great coaches

I dont think its too surprising they all are doing well, even if its above expectations
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renouncing jonathon simmons for rudy gay is unacceptable

yeah I didn't like this move either but IN SPURS WE TRUST
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The Suns should probably be lumped into that "very bad" category. Two wins be damned, they're going to be pretty bad because of the dysfunction that's on that team right now. I have to believe Orlando and Detroit will taper off, for now at least. I can't fathom both of those teams in the playoffs this year, something definitely has to give.
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i haven't watched a non-celtics game this season. we have yet to play a real team other than the bucks, so it's hard to gauge - but this team is incredibly fun, and i don't see any real reason to be afraid of any eastern team atm. (not that i'd necessarily favor boston, but i'd consider us even money vs washington or toronto on neutral courts)

that said, it could all go to hell once we start playing real teams and the grind starts to hit the young guys' conditioning. OKC this week should tell us something, and i'm not sure it'll be something i want to find out <_<
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Did you just call the Cavs not real
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did you see that Knicks game
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LeonhartFour posted...

did you see that Knicks game

this + that game was very clearly f'd up due to [MEMORY REDACTED]
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Well, the Cavs' problem is that they were already atrocious on defense last year, and they somehow got worse and a lot older. This would be the year to end LeBron's reign in the East if there were a worthy contender.
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Slow starts are not that uncommon on Lebron teams though. If you honestly believe Cleveland won't be a top 3 (at the absolute worst) team in the East you're crazy. They're still in my book around 90% likely to be the 1 seed.
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Oh, the Cavs will figure it out eventually, I'm sure. If Isaiah can come back and be effective, that'll help a lot, too (in addition to making their defense even worse).

They're not very good right now though, relatively speaking.
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man the kings are real bad
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They haven't, but brushing them off in favor of teams like Orlando and Detroit after 6 or 7 games is a little nutty.
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Oh, most people are piling on LeBron and the Cavs right now because it's easy to do and they probably won't be able to do it later. I think most people believe they'll end up in the ECF and probably the Finals as per usual, but it's fun to poke at how bad they look right now.
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v_charon posted...

Slow starts are not that uncommon on Lebron teams though. If you honestly believe Cleveland won't be a top 3 (at the absolute worst) team in the East you're crazy. They're still in my book around 90% likely to be the 1 seed.

no one said that

that doesn't mean that opening night was a remotely good assessment of the celtics' capability
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I don't personally believe in a dude like Kyrie at all. He already showed how good he was at leading a team before Lebron came back. Maybe he's learned something from the man and he'll prove me wrong, it's still too soon to know so I'm sticking to my guns on how I feel about some of these teams.

At least the Kings exist to keep everything leveled and normal.
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kyrie has scored 40+ in the finals multiple times against one of the best teams in league history, successfully guarded the greatest shooter in the league history and 2 time MVP in the finals,and hit arguably the biggest isolation 3 pointer in league history... in a finals game 7 on the road

so i'm not sure what you mean by believing in kyrie

he doesn't need to lead a trash team with zero system, zero defense, and zero coaching, like he did in cleveland. no one wants him to be t-mac in orlando or james harden in houston his first year there. we want him to be kyrie irving in boston
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I don't believe in Kyrie either. I think he can hit shots and get hot but I don't think he thrives as a #1.
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Kyrie's as skilled as anyone in the league when he's got the ball in his hands, but he's not nearly as good when he doesn't have the ball.
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I think he's been helped out tremendously by Lebron covering up those holes. he's an awesome one on one scorer when he's got it going and he's got the best safety valve in NBA history. we'll see with this team. he's had his strong points, like the last couple games, and also some games when he's just so-so.
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that said, Kyrie is a playoff god and he'll be judged almost exclusively by that. if he can do what he's done the last two years in the playoffs, Celtics fans will be very happy.
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i guess you guys will have to define what you mean by 'thrive' then

as far as i can tell, my assessment of kyrie irving, entering the 2017-18 season, is superior in every way to my assessment of isaiah thomas entering the 2014-15 season

IT4 put up an MVP-level performance as the #1 option last year and brought it in the playoffs, too, until his body gave out

was he or the celtics good enough to win a chip? not that year and maybe not ever, but 29/6 on the efficiency he put up was absolutely insane
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Cavs will probably be ok, roster is just full of injuries right now which is why LeBron is awkwardly playing the point

Kyrie is pretty good! I dont think hes a top 5 point guard (top 10 may be tough too, that position is stacked) but he definitely can help mentor that really young Celtics squad

Watched a bit of that Thunder game, man I cant tell if the Thunder were just really good or if all the Bucks that werent Giannis were just bad
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Thunder is very on again, off again. they have an incredible game and then just drop it hard.

makes me think they're going to be totally fine once they figure it out.
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Thunder played by far their best game of the year
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All those losses are pretty close though, right? Could just be Melo and PG trying to gel with Westbrook
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Russ was awesome tonight.
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I need Drummy to have a really good game tonight pls
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lakers up 11 points on detroit

god damn it
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looking forward to lakers celtics in the finals in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 tho
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Lakers best team
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Pistons beating Golden State in Oakland then getting blown out by the Lakers seems like a Pistons thing to do.
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Amazing to see what winning does for you. Magic resale prices for next 2 home games are tripled compared to the last home game.

yeah Detroit losing feels very apt for this crazy NBA season

I think I trust my priors more than any results
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It was their third game in four nights and they just looked kinda flat.

How they look home against Milwaukee will be a better indicator with a couple of days off.
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v_charon posted...

He already showed how good he was at leading a team before Lebron came back.

I don't like this argument because he was like 22 y/o and 3 years into his career. No one is a good leader at that age except maybe Lebron. Kobe, even with Shaq, didn't do anything for his first 3 years. Curry didn't make the playoffs until his 4th year. Even Jordan didn't win more than 40 games until his 4th year, and he stayed in college longer so he was older.

tl;dr It's silly to rip on Kyrie for what happened before Lebron came back because he was just a kid
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so kyrie is claiming the flat earth stuff was trolling

he also says that there's not one real photo of the earth
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so what he's one of those conspiracy theorists who believes we've never been to space now?
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i honestly have no clue what he thinks

he's at ulti levels of conspiracy theories
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kyrie is basically an antivaxxer

"we just need more info"
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That might be his next move!
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LeonhartFour posted...

so what he's one of those conspiracy theorists who believes we've never been to space now?

sadly, i've gotten a little more color on this.

Also, I have a question. Why is it that the footprints that they saved, because they collected the footprints.

Whats his name? Was it Neil Armstrong? I dont even know.

Literally, as simple as this: Why is it that the the steps in terms of the pictures that they say he stepped on why do they look completely different than the ones that are actually in the museum that he walked with? I just want to know. I just want to know these things. I have questions. I just want to know.

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have fun with that guy
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Magic decline option on Hezonja of 5.2m for next year. They have balls it seems!

WE'RE IN THE .500 CLUB BABY!

I'm pretty sure we haven't been .500 since we had Iguodala and Jrue Holiday.
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