Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 2201. (Read 913888 times)

Honestly, these two teams are my top picks in in the East so it's very hard to decide whether which one of them will make it. Hmm, I think I'll go with the Bucks. Their inside defense are stronger like what you've said and their 3 point shooting is not bad either (IMO) since Korver, Hill and Middleton were there; and take note, Giannis can now also shoot one . So for me they can dominate the East this year.

Celtics are a good 3 point shooting team, Bucks advantage are on the insider as its where there defense is focus, however, if these two will meat in the ECF, I would go with the Boston as they are not a one man team, everyone is willing to give their best and the are so unpredictable, and maybe they can beat the Bucks but their very good 3 point shooting.

I'll take Celtics over the Heat to advance in the ECF. I mean the Celtics were a very good team and still developing. If only the Celtics had a dominant big man, they could've easily dominate the East. Though Daniel Theis is having a great season with the Celtics but I think he's not gonna be enough if they'll going to face the much taller Bucks in the playoffs. They need a center that could pull a double digit rebounds every game. Still, i'll be betting for the Celtics for the East conference this playoffs.

This is what I've posted before why Spurs will struggle to reach the 8th spot.

Some say here before that it's just a few games behind so no worries for the Spurs without realizing that being behind 4 or 5 games on the 8th when the season is near half is already a tough spot in the West (the time I posted that, Spurs I think have 22 wins). The bottom 8 on the West can't be just taken easily so while Spurs is doing their best to climb the ladder, other teams are also doing the same. It's not easy to make 4 to 5 consecutive wins.

Still have a chance but for me, but very low.


Just in case you missed my bump. If interested, shoot me a reply. Today's the deadline. I can't risk to extend it for another week.

They are piling up big men. Is this an Elton Brand strategy? 

If it is East we are talking about here.
There is a lot of chances that Heat could snatch the ECF or it could also be Celtics.
It is difficult to predict. Remember, something in those players wakes up whenever the playoffs starts.
They suddenly becomes strong and every second will count.

If they want to be in the playoffs again, they need to start winning especially at home.
I noticed that Gay is back in the game against the Dallas Mavericks but they still loss, they need to re-evaluate their line up and adjust accordingly.

Spurs has a good coaching stuff but their players seems to be inconsistent, especially Aldridge who is not been as effective as before anymore.

I really hope that he could live to that hype since we all know he started in the NBA with an injury, even T-Mac compared his injury to Zion's. It is not sever but it is a force that could affect his career. I really hope they could advance to playoffs so that he could experience the pressure in that kind of games where he realy needed to step up and carry his team up.

Since it's "EAST", it's now safe to assume they will be in playoffs and still safe for now that they won't be facing the 1st or 2nd on the playoffs on the first round.

23 games left and the remaining players should just do everything to win as much as possible.

As long as the injury isn't that major or results are turned out good, they have lots of time to rest and recover. Playoffs start in April 2020.

 I think Sixers are in both a good place and a bad place right now. They couldn't keep giving JJ Reddick all that much money and they realized they needed a star as well and sent some of their players for Jimmy Butler who just left. Now what they have to do is get rid of the bad contracts, mainly if they get rid of Tobias Harris and Al Horford (even just Horford is enough) they could potentially afford to get a superb player that would change things in a big way. Horford was a good player in Celtics so it made sense to actually pay him that much but unfortunately in the small ball world where Rockets are literally going to court with 6'6 as their tallest player, it is only natural that playing with both Embiid and Horford on the floor clogged the paint a lot with Simmons not shooting that was just horrible strategy.

I really liked that 76s roster, and i watched quite a few games. They played some nice team basketball, but their management decided to go all in, gave Saric and Covington, their 2 starting players for Butler that left them soon. It was obvious bad decision even back then, rushed one, as they wanted to go for title too soon. Later on, Butler didn't want resign with them despite them ofeering him max 5 year contract. So they end up giving Tobias Harris way too much, 150M/5 contract. To be honest, even Horford contract ain't too good either, 109M/4 years. A lot of money for  what it looks now like a bench player.
Currently, they don't have much wiggle room, and who knows how all this will end, but it doesn't look good at all.


It will be very very hard for them to get that 8th spot, with 4 wins behind Grizzlies, and tough end of the regular season. In their last 7 games they will play 2x vs Pelicans, 2x Rockets, 76s, Indiana and Kings. Won't be easy at all , and i wouldn't put my money on them to reach that 8th spot, despite them being Spurs.

I am still hoping that Spurs would make a push, they have a good young core in their team and they got rid of one player (didn't get any new as far as I know) and they are doing better with the minutes for the young players, they also have Derozan and Aldridge who can change games when they are on their day. I know there is a big difference and it is harder to go into the playoffs this year since every team is equally strong in that last 8-9-10-11 spots so it would be hard for Spurs to go beyond all of them.

However, we are talking about Spurs here, I know they are not the spurs back in the day anymore but the culture is there so I still feel like they may have a chance, it will all depend on how they finish the season and I really wish they go so the record will still belong to them and increase it instead of finally not going to playoffs.

Yeah, unlike any other centers this guy could change the pace of the game.
He is really someone which is on the top 10 list of big men with a great skill. 
Not too many centers/power forwards now can be like that.
Jokic, Brook Lopez, Davis. Those name are the most known. Others are mostly shot blockers or waiting for the alley oop. Howard, McGee, Allen.

An agile big man is difficult to find this days and they are expensive.  Not to mention he is still young.

That is why it's very important they will be healthy in the playoffs, they'll rest now and it doesn't matter if they will end up in the number 8 spot, I am pretty sure they can still match up with the Bucks, maybe they can upset the Bucks, who knows, right?

They've got a good position coming to the next round but without Simon and Embiid, it will be difficult for this team to handle whoever they've going to face without there Stars. Though the chance of getting back much quicker is no longer impossible as there's already advance treatment. It's just need for both stars to have a good rest and proper medications.

Let's hope Embiid is alright, he will undergo and MRI on Thursday per update of : https://www.rotoworld.com/basketball/nba/player/30040/joel-embiid
He is an important piece of the team, so he needs to be back healthy again, I don't mind if he will rest a week as long as he comes back since they still have a good standing right now.

This is also why I bet on high odds for the lower seeds.  Sadly, I never got the chance to bet for the Cavs.
It was the sprain shoulder from Embiid which is why the Cavs won that game.
He just played 8 minutes of the game and then need to exit from the game.

This is a good read.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/joel-embiid-suffers-sprained-shoulder-and-it-feels-like-this-whole-76ers-experiment-is-teetering-on-the-edge/

Yeah, Elton Brand is trying something else and it is not working. He might be kicked when all of this goes south.
I'd rather let the last roster stay when they fought Raptors or before that.
It was a dream of a good pointguard. (I think we have talked about here just a few days back)
Filled with 3 point shooters. Reddick, Saric, Covington, Belinelli. Those names and a lot more was given up for what?
Take Butler out, that is okay for me. But put more shooters in exchange for him.
Now 2 stars are out, how much mess will it be?

I doubt they'll win against the cavaliers, suddenly the cavs have become a better team... they just beat the Sixers and I think they'll be able to compete with the pelicans.

Personally, I also believe that Pelicans has a decent chance to get that last stop, they are winning now most of their games now, while teams like Blazers and Memphis are suddenly losing games.

Before betting on such a thing, it is not a bad idea to check the schedule of the teams fighitning for that 8th spot. I narrowed it down to 3 teams that i believe have highest chances to end in the playoff: Pelicans, Blazers and Grizzlies. Spurs are 4 games behind Grizzlies, and as much as i would like to see them in the playoff, i doubt that that will happen this year. By the look of the schedule, Pelicans actually have decent chance of getting into playoffs, but more about that later in the post.
So I took a few screenshots and and here is their schedule until end of regular season:

                                                                            Pelicans                                   Blazers                                          Grizzlies
Pelicans::By the looks of it, they don't have the easiest schedule, but still plenty of games against teams they can beat. Especially considering the fact that they are not the same team with and without Zion. Since he joined them, they are 8-5, and that;s much higher win percentage  compared to the part of the season he missed. Another  important thing is that they will have 2 games against direct opponent, Grizzlies, that might be the key.

Grizzlies: If you check the current standing, they look like having a slight advantage over other 2 teams, but when you check their opponents until end of the regular season, situation doesn't look so good anymore. They probably have the toughest schedule, having to play 2x against both Pelicans and Blazers. On top of that, they will have some tough stretches, like the one between March 20th and March 31st. In that period they have to play 2 games against Pelicans, Celtics, Bucks and 2x against Raptors.

Blazers: They might have the easiest schedule among these 3 teams, but their recent form ain't best, 1 win and 4 losses. No tough stretches though, plenty of weak teams that don't have any chance for playoff, and 2x games against Memphis. A lot will depend on when Lillard comes back.

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Thoughts on the schedule, which team has the easiest and which team the toughest one?

We can't call it worse, maybe they are not as good when both Klay and Curry are playing but they have proven they can compete with Curry.
Warriors have improve because of the splash brothers, they are not a one man team as they don't have what we called a superstar that could carry his team alone, like Kobe, Lebron, and Jordan, Warriors are different as they are playing a real team effort.

I heard one analyst talk about the Pelicans. They are in a fast pace after Zion came back.
Yeah, and there is a lot of chance they could really make it to the playoffs.
We will just don't see it yet.
There are still a lot of games and there is rough road that will come.
They need the win against the Cavs and then the Lakers again. Prove something. They need to be worthy for that playoffs 8th spot.