Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 391. (Read 903278 times)

The only question is that, are they healthy at that time?
I'm not pessimistic per se, but we know that these NBA players can sustain injuries that might be the reason they can't play at certain tournaments like the Olympics.

Seeing them committing is good because they are seeing other countries coping up, and can match with them already, but the question is, are they releasing statements like this because they want to scare other countries? Well, I guess they want to get back on top again thus they are doing this. It's a shame on their part if they can't win a gold medal knowing that they've been the powerhouse country globally in basketball.

It seems like this consecutive times where they aren't winning a gold medal is a wake-up call for them. I guess I just hope that they can build a team that can be called "Dream Team V2.0".

So that Abu Dhabi game is like the Dallas Mavericks homecourt with the announcer so happy whenever a Mavs shoots the ball.  

I like the roster of the Mavericks this season, most players are good at the defensive end. Seth Curry, Grant Williams, Josh Green, Exum, Morris, and Jaden Hardy, they actually strengthem their backcourt defense and I think most of the time they will be playing fast small ball plays with either Kyrie or Luka leading the way. I think Coach Jason Kidd should take advantage of this, he has good roleplayers there and he doesn't want to just bench them because they are reliable on both ends of the floor. Player rotation will be a key factor for the Mavs to win more games this season.

But for teams like the Timberwolves or Nuggets who are relying on big men, it will be a problem for them. But I do love their roster now, in my opinion, it's a decent one that could be a playoff contender or better.

Nah there's no such thing as revenge. The Olympics is just more heavy than the FIBA World Cup for these NBA superstars.

The fact that Team USA didn't bring any top superstars to the recent FIBA World Cup just shows that they consider FIBA as a practice stage for their youngsters to compete in global competition. Even if they won the Gold on the recent FIBA, their overall lineup in the Olympics will still be purely top NBA superstars and not those roster they have sent in FIBA.

FIBA happens every year. Olympics is every 2 or 4 years? That's how the special Olympics is.

I was shocked and laughing at the same time seeing the emo rebonded look for sure and if he's going to play with that kind of look without the hair getting a hindrance to his eye, for sure that will be a great and surprising thing to see, I was really kind of doubting Jimmy now when I saw this it was like an escape to his old self and bring the new him, but for me it was just hair, actually when I was kind of younger I got an emo hair aswell and for sure even though my other eye was covered in hair it is not really a hindrance when walking but in playing basketball I surely got a doubt and for me, Jimmy Butler is not mentally stable right now,


It was off track if you're talking about Jimmy Butler for sure it was not Butler, but you got a point on those words I feel it is not suitable for Jimmy Butler and for Butler, I really feel that he has some mental issue involving here, some deep emotional maybe a mental block if you will hear what he was saying he said that his emotion reflect what he looks like right now for sure he wants us to clearly see the way he looks right now for me got "Emotional damage"

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The 1st NBA Preseason has already settled I know it is just the Preseason but watching the game I got a Fiba World Cup vibe with Karl Anthony Towns and Luca Doncic playing and they are really giving their all with the game well perhaps they are giving the best show for the Abu Dhabi fans for sure because the game was held in Abu Dhabi, maybe the NBA is Collaborating with the Abu Dhabi and the NBA got a huge payment just to play here, for sure,

It is what the community and fans want him to play for, for Cameroon. But the decision is on him and we can't do anything about it. If it's about his life achievement, he certainly going to go for the Team USA.

They're going to go all in on this one as it's like Fiba world cup is just like another name these days for Olympics and we get Olympics as the official one.

We're all agreeing on that one.

But guys, I guess that he's got already an answer on this one and I was just late to realize and search about it as it was out a few hours ago.

Joel Embiid commits to play for Team USA, not France, at 2024 Olympics in Paris

It has nothing to do with any type of loss in the FIBA tournament.  It's just that the US NBA players don't consider that a tournament that they want to play in every year.  The Olympics is a whole other tournament in itself.  Kids dream of representing their country in the Olympics, I bet most kids don't even know what the FIBA tournament is.

After that humiliating lost? Yes, James and company expressed their willingness to the next Olympics to carry Team USA. Not sure if he is being asked by Cameroon or France, but he shows his interest on playing with the US. So it was Joel who approach first just to be fair with USA.


Just go with Cameroon, that's his birth country, there's nothing great as a player representing your own team in the Olympics. And there are even those who are born somewhere else and yet they wanted to represent their true nationality.

If Embiid really chooses to play for the US team this shows his character, yet again.
He is from Cameroon, he should also play for that team. Of course they have no chance the the Olympic games, but that's not what matter here.
It's about pride and representing your country and heritage.

If it wasn't for his home country and for example Luc Mbah a Moute's basketball camp there he would never have found his way to basketball. Now it's time to give back I think.

But for some reason I am sure he doesn't do "the right thing".

AFAIK, Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry have already expressed that they are committed in playing for the US' national team on Olympics. Now this gets more serious. While Joel Embiid is being asked by three national teams.

But if I am him, this is a tough thing. He'll be the hero on Cameroon even if they're not going to get into Olympics and fall with the qualifiers.

And if he wants likely high chance of winning the Olympics, he'll choose to go along with the team USA. He's got a few days left for the deadline of his decision.

For sure, maybe some of those players, it's their first time to play in the desert as well. And so to past sometime, majority could have brought their Xbox with them and play. As for Joel Embiid, it's weird though because I read that he held both French and American citizenship and was born in Cameroon.

So maybe just the rest of the NBA, after their dismal performance in FIBA's competition recently in Manila, high caliber athletes are eager to don the US Jersey this coming Olympics and represent Team USA and extract their revenge and win the Gold medal to show US supremacy again in basketball. But I guess the game really evolved as there are a lot of non-American in the NBA right now. So they need to bring in their best player and it might include Joel.

Klay playing PF would not be all that terrible, he is a 6'7 guard and he could play the SG position if he wants to, but he could also play the SF position as we have seen, but since his injury, he hasn't been as fast as he used to be and he lacks all the lateral quickness that he used to have as well, which means that if he goes to PF position, which would be a weird experiment but at least an experiment, that would open up so many positions.

I still think that the best way for them to go with would be putting CP3 at PG, and Curry at SG, Klay at SF, Draymond at PF and find some center. Sure that means they are not using Wiggins and Kuminga at starters, or Kuminga at Center starter position maybe, but Wiggins could be a great sixth man that can replace any of those players and get as much as 25-30 minutes a game, sort of like Manu Ginobili.

I saw video of some NBA players playing Xbox in the desert. It seems like they’re having a good time over there. Speaking of international basketball, Joel Embiid has stated that he plans to play for team USA in the next Olympic Games. That seems a little weird to me considering he didn’t come to the US until later in life. A good addition to team USA though.

So finally the official NBA season starts. We are still in preseason though. Abu Dhabi, UAE is hosting the Mavericks and the Timberwolves. Very good team effort by the Wolves as they are leading double digits against the tandem of Luka and Kyrie. Edwards is still missing in action while Luka seems to be the only one scoring in his team with drama queen Kyrie still with zero points.

By the way, while the regular season is yet to start, is there anybody here playing NBA Fantasy on ESPN or Yahoo? I want to join a league but it should be serious to make it challenging and worth the time.

Jimmy Butler has to be trolling. And I kind of understand why he did this. He knew that this was going to make people talk about him a lot. And in this attention economy, that's what everybody wants. I am not saying what he did was right to get the attention. But it is what it is.

Right now James Harden is definitely having some trouble with his team. I hope they will be able to fix this. Otherwise, it is definitely not going to be very good for the morale of the team. But at the same time, if the team does not think that he is the best fit, what measures are going to be taken? And will the team give him what he wants?

Well, he's not exactly Mr. Loyalty anymore, is he? Jumping teams and who knows, maybe a change of wife is next on the list! But honestly, we've got no business poking our noses into his personal life. For me, I won't bother digging into why he's filing for divorce or trying to connect his personal stuff to his past or future performance with the Bucks. My main thing right now is, can he actually gel with the Bucks' superstars? You know, chemistry can be a make-or-break factor for this team.

Looks like this is going to be quite the life changing move for Damian Lillard. In addition to changing teams and moving to Milwaukee, he has also now filed for divorce from his wife. No idea if that will motivate him or cause him to have a terrible season, but one thing is certain, the man who was just being talked about as Mr loyalty is going through some changes.

There's a reason why a player would want to leave a team.

Once a player signs a contract with a certain team, they have a mutual understanding that they will follow the contract. Part of that understanding is that a player could request a trade if they do not feel happy playing with the team. There are many factors that could affect this decision. The same goes for the team; if they are not happy with a player's performance or for whatever reason, they can arrange a trade. So what happens here is that both the team owners and the player have 50/50 rights to do what they want, as long as it does not violate the contract. If it does, that's another story, and it could lead to a legal battle.

They really need to act and give these kinds of players some harsh punishment in order not to be followed by others because there has not been a problem like this before. yes, players back then had their own life outside the court like Dennis Rodman when he attended some parties and other stuff but when he got inside the court with the Bulls he still played and managed to take his role as the crucial rebounder for the team. while in this NBA era that we have right now, the players will do everything they can just to be traded or get out from their team if they want to.

Yes! Finally! But the sad part of it is it's starting at 12 a.m. here in our timeline. 

About the Dallas Mavericks, I am a follower of their page on Facebook and I can see some good chemistry between the two of them in practice. I think they are having fun playing with each other and Kyrie looks fresh again unlike the time when he was playing with other superstars. The positive vibe of Luka Doncic must've affected him.

It's preseason so I guess if ever the two will come out, it will just be in limited minutes. More playtime for their bench trying to build their own chemistry so that they will be ready if needed.

8 hours after that game will be Golden State Warriors against the LA Lakers. NBA is kicking off with some good games to hype the league. Nicely done. That's 8:30 AM here so I am guessing at night in Eastern Time.

What's important for Harden is that he still enjoys a huge contract he earned with the 76ers, but his performance will have a major impact on his future. Maybe Harden is no longer in his prime, but being a star player with the Rockets, for which he had a huge contract, I'm sure money is not his main focus, and that it's winning a championship.

With the current state of the 76ers and the conflicts involving Harden, they might decide to trade him if they can't resolve the problem. Harden doesn't trust the team anymore, so it's hard to expect him to help the team in the same way as before.