2014-15 NBA season (or, will the Sixers go 0-82?)

Season starts tomorrow, son.

Picks? Crazy thoughts? Inexplicable Kobe-hating (oh, c'mon, someone on here does)?

I'll go Spurs over Clips in the West, Cavs over Bulls in the East (I really like Noah, but I don't trust Pau and Rose to beat LeBron, Love, and Irving).

Philly and the Lakers will fight it out for the worst record in the league, with the Sixers ultimately prevailing at 14-68.

JaVale will recover from injury to continue to lead the league in THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING moments, and Brian Shaw will eventually crack and punch him in the face during a timeout.

Loved the Suns vs Lakers opener. Watching the Lakers suck hard and Kobe get frustrated was a sight to behold. Their entire season is going to be Kobe throwing shade at other players and shaking his head.

Cavs lost their opener last night as well against the Knicks. It's only one game obviously, but I'm curious as to whether this is going to be the "annointed championship team" all the analysts predict they will be, or a bust like the Kobe/Nash/Howard Lakers team.

I predict the Spurs to, as usual, take the West, with the Cavs taking the East. If Lebron, Love, and Irving can gel together, its going to be insane. There's a small part of me that would like to see Cleveland win just because they have such horrible luck with pro sports teams.

That said, I'm a die hard Suns fan and I can't wait to see Dragic, Bledsoe, and Thomas wreck some shit in the West.

Kinda sad that no one else has chimed in here. Seems like basketball popularity is fading, which is a shame.

I'm a big NBA fan, and I live in Northeast Ohio, so I'd love to see the Cavs win it all.

The first Cavs game was a bit rough, but I think they'll develop some chemistry and work out the kinks. That said, I'll take the Cavs in the East with the Bulls and Raptors close behind.

The Spurs will probably get the top seed in the West, but the Warriors, Clippers, and Blazers will give them an entertaining run for their money.

Things just aren't the same for me ever since my supersonics got canned but I still like to watch games just to see great players cause I have no rooting interest anymore

Spurs probably take the West but I would watch Dallas as a potential spoiler. After watching their first two games there is a lot of skill out on the floor. Assuming they stay healthy and continue to play at that high level, they can definitely compete for a title. That being said there are a number of teams that could take the West and I wouldn't be surprised.

As for the East, Bulls come through in the end. I don't think the Cavs will have the defensive chops to make it out of the East. I look for Lebron to slip a bit again in terms of his defensive ability and I don't believe he will get a lot of help on that end from his teammates.

At the end of the day, Spurs will likely repeat.

Other prediction is Kobe jacks up 20-25 shots a night and passes MJ on the all time scoring list before the Allstar break. Not much of a prediction, I know.

Suns are 2-0 after being the Spurs last night, though its looking like they'll be 2-1 as they're trailing the Jazz.

Seattle got boned when the Supersonics got moved to Oklahoma City. Things just haven't been quite the same since then. Lots of great memories watching the Suns duke it out with them in the 90's.

I bet you're right on Kobe. His team blows ass, so I expect him to ratchet up his alpha male role and chuck shots like nobody's business. I predict games where he gets 40-50 points and the Lakers still lose by 20 points.

Nuggets look sloppy and eager to settle for jumpers early in the season. 1-1 so far, home and away with Sacramento coming up.

Don't sleep on this team. They won 36 games last year despite being absolutely decimated by injuries (seriously, at one point all three of their point guards were down; they played like 17 games with zero healthy PGs). Gallinari and Afflalo being back makes them a much better shooting and defending team. Lawson and Faried are both rising stars in this league too.

True. I expect them to end up right in the middle of the standings. They might be able to scrape for an 8th seed, but with the West still being as competitive as it has been in seasons past, it'll be pretty hard for them.

I think if Lawson, Gallinari, and Faried all play 60+ games the Nuggets will make the playoffs. This team is extremely similar to the one that won 57 games two years ago -- basically, swap Igoudala for Afflalo and swap the last three or so guys on the bench for younger, more athletic versions.

It's a very deep team:
PG Ty Lawson, Nate Robinson, Erick Green
SG Arron Afflalo, Randy Foye, Gary Harris (rookie)
SF Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Alonzo Gee
PF Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, JJ Hickson
C Timofey Mozgov, JaVale McGee, Jusuf Nurkic (rookie)

Last season McGee missed 77 games, Hickson missed 13, Gallinari missed the whole season, Chandler missed 20, Arthur missed 14, Robinson missed 38. Lawson, their best player, missed 20 and played another 20 with multiple nagging injuries. And they had Evan Fournier instead of Arron Afflalo. There's no way this team has luck that bad again. People will get hurt for sure, but there's no way it'll be that bad. We were seriously starting Randy Foye at point guard last year for a significant amount of time, and this year he's the backup 2 guard. We started Quincey Miller at SF, and he lost his roster spot to Gee. Hickson was a starter, now he's the last big guy on the bench.

And both their rookies are first round picks. Nurkic is already getting minutes and looks good.

As a long-suffering Wizards fan, it's nice to actually have a team worth watching for once. Predictions?

The Cavs have a season not unlike the 2011 Heat season where they struggle for the first 20-25 games while they find their chemistry, find their groove around Xmas and start bodying the East to win 57-60 games.

The Hawks are the surprise of the East.

Derrick Rose plays less than 60 games (not exactly bold).

Pelicans are the surprise in the West and make the playoffs mostly because Anthony Davis puts up MVP numbers (but has no chance of winning as long as LeBron plays more than 70 games).

The Thunder get in the playoffs as a 4 or 5 seed and upset the Spurs in the 2nd round.

Oh, I forgot, I suppose- Spurs over Cavs for the title. Cavs have a great Big 3, but the Spurs have the much better overall roster.

Sucks about Westbrook, Thunder are done.

jro said:

Oh, I forgot, I suppose- Spurs over Cavs for the title. Cavs have a great Big 3, but the Spurs have the much better overall roster.

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The Spurs have better coaching and team chemistry, but I disagree about the roster. I think the Cavs' roster is just as good if not better on paper. They just have to learn to work together and play better defense. I can't wait to see how the postseason turns out this year.

dspoonrt said:

The Spurs have better coaching and team chemistry, but I disagree about the roster. I think the Cavs' roster is just as good if not better on paper. They just have to learn to work together and play better defense. I can't wait to see how the postseason turns out this year.

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Spurs are getting really old. Stranger things have happened, but I don't see them winning it all this season.

Fygee said:

Spurs are getting really old. Stranger things have happened, but I don't see them winning it all this season.

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Yeah plus it just really hard to go back to back championships in modern day sports

The Phoenix Suns definitely won't be the surprise team this year as they were last year as they were projected to tank the season and win 20-25 games at best. Such as it was, they went on to go 48-34 and NOT make the playoffs (though their record was better than four Eastern teams). They've started out with wins over the Lakers and Spurs however coming off a stinging loss at Utah. Despite not having a dominate center, they will be competitive and fast this season and should make a serious run at the playoffs once again.

joecommando said:

Yeah plus it just really hard to go back to back championships in modern day sports

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Normally I'd agree but basketball is the most predictable of all the major sports. It's not like football where one team just needs to get hot at the right time and can steal a championship (or two if you're the Giants). Thanks to the wild cards and the 3 out of 5 divisional round, baseball has become much more random. Hockey's always been a crap shoot.

However, basketball's pretty predictable. Teams outside of the Top 2 seeds rarely make the finals and that's usually only because of an injury to a star player. If the Spurs are solid in the regular season and their older guys remain relatively injury-free, there's no reason to believe they can't make the finals again especially if the Thunder end up in the bottom half of the draw (which it looks like they will at this point). Who else really has a shot at beating them in the West? The Clippers? I still feel like they're one player away. The Grizzlies? Maybe but they're probably going to have to win a round before they can even get to the Spurs. The Blazers? Nope. The Warriors? A player away.

I don't see anyone from the East beating them. The Cavs aren't ready (Love, Irving and Waiters have a combined 0 career playoff games), the Heat are Bosh, what's left of Wade and a bunch of benchwarmers and the Wizards and Raptors aren't ready yet. The Bulls might give them a run but that assumes Derrick Rose can stay upright for a full regular season and a 20 game playoff schedule. Consider me skeptical on that one.

Really all that leaves is the Thunder coming back strong and making a great playoff run from like the 5 or 6 seed. I still don't see it happening. I think the only chance the Spurs don't win is bad luck/father time catching up with Duncan/Ginobili/Parker.

I'd say things are pretty unpredictable right now.

The Spurs are 2-3. Ditto for the Cavs.
The Thunder are 1-5.
The freaking Kings are 5-1.
The Lakers are 0-5, with Kobe playing.

This season has been pretty crazy so far.

Boogie lookin' like the MVP two weeks into the season- the Kings outscore their opponent by 14 points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor, and they get outscored by 14 per 100 when he sits.

Granted, Brow is right there with him- 23, 14 and 4 will do that for you.

Also, fire Brian Shaw. God the Nuggets are awful this season. So very, very bad. Let the tanking begin!

Kings are slipping a bit. I expect them to level out and either be a .500 team, or slightly above that.

Lakers and the Nuggets will be competing for the bottom of the barrel in the West. Seeing the Blazers destroy the Nuggets by scoring 84 points against them IN ONE HALF was just tragic. It was like I was watching a kid get beat up by a pro boxer.

The Suns are keeping pace at 5-3, but 4 of their wins were big comebacks after slacking off for the first three quarters. Isaiah Thomas, so far, is the biggest steal in terms of a lopsided trade this season. Dude's kicking ass. Gerald Green is also lighting things up. He's a very undervalued player.

Fygee said:

Kings are slipping a bit. I expect them to level out and either be a .500 team, or slightly above that.

Lakers and the Nuggets will be competing for the bottom of the barrel in the West. Seeing the Blazers destroy the Nuggets by scoring 84 points against them IN ONE HALF was just tragic. It was like I was watching a kid get beat up by a pro boxer.

The Suns are keeping pace at 5-3, but 4 of their wins were big comebacks after slacking off for the first three quarters. Isaiah Thomas, so far, is the biggest steal in terms of a lopsided trade this season. Dude's kicking ass. Gerald Green is also lighting things up. He's a very undervalued player.

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FIRE BRIAN SHAW!! Seriously, guy's only talent is fighting with his own players. Ran 'Dre Miller out of town last year, this year it looks like he's going to do the same to Aaron Afflalo. Nuggets seriously need to blow this shit up, too bad the rest of the NBA looks at this team and knows the only assets are Chandler, Afflalo, and maybe Ty Lawson (no one is going to take Faried at $11M per). Tank while the tanking is good, Connely. I was pretty impressed with that first half against Portland, though, hell yeah. Too bad Portland called off the dogs and didn't win by 70 points.

And yes, I do live in Colorado.

Looks like Denver pulled their heads out of their rears. They're back up to .500 after annihilating my Suns in an embarrassing fashion. In the meantime, my Suns have managed to firmly push their heads up their own asses for these past few games. That loss to Orlando on Saturday was a complete and total embarrassment.

Golden State is rolling towards a 10 game winning streak with plenty of other top Western teams destroying everything in their wake.

How the hell is Toronto still first place? Good for them though since they've been the underdog forever, and additionally are pretty much the same team from last year.

Philidelphia has lost 16 straight and is looking to break the record for the worst start of any NBA team in any season.

Fygee said:

How the hell is Toronto still first place?

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DeMar DeRozan has only been out for a game or two. They'll slip at bit and soon it'll be Chicago or Cleveland on top.

Kristian Meller said:

DeMar DeRozan has only been out for a game or two. They'll slip at bit and soon it'll be Chicago or Cleveland on top.

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Not if Derrick Rose's body continues to be made out of balsa wood and cotton candy. I think they'll stay in the top 4, but I don't forsee them taking over the top spot, or at the very least holding it should they get it.

I don't forsee Cleveland getting anywhere near that top spot. They're beginning to find their stride as a team, but they're still suffering from 2012/13 Lakers syndrome by having top tier players that can't get it together. They'll make the playoffs, especially with the East being far squishier than the West, but I expect them to finish in 4th place or below.

I don't see who else is going to be fighting for the top spot in the east. The Bulls can do that without Rose, and the Cavs will get it together. They have been for a couple of weeks now. Getting rid of Waiters at some point will help a lot.

Kristian Meller said:

I don't see who else is going to be fighting for the top spot in the east. The Bulls can do that without Rose, and the Cavs will get it together. They have been for a couple of weeks now. Getting rid of Waiters at some point will help a lot.

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I'm going to keep my big mouth shut because I don't want to jinx it but there's another team in the Top 4 in the East that nobody's mentioned whose playing very well. It looks like the East is going to be wide open but I'm pretty confident that the Cavs are going to be the 1 seed by the end of the year. All of the other teams are either too young (Raps/Wiz) or too old/injury-prone (Bulls/Heat/Nets).

Thoroughly enjoying watching the Warriors, Kings and Pelicans taking the next step in the West. Curious to see if LeBron keeps putting up mediocre numbers if we might actually get a non-Bron MVP this year.

Hilarious to see