2013/14 NBA Season Thread

[Ghermez Agha]

This is the year the New York Knicks will be crowned champions!

In all seriousness, im expecting a better NBA season overall from a neautral perspective. I think the improvement of the teams in the east are going to wear down LeBron and Miami a lot more, making them a bit weaker this year IMO. Not going to be a walk in the park for them like the past two seasons. Bulls, Pacers, Knicks, Pistons, Nets all teams that are loaded with talent.

West is looking good still, and overall the more entertaining conference. I'm not sure if they will hold their long streak as statistically being the stronger conference though, teams out west are weakening whereas the east is improving big time.

Even though its obviously way too early to make legitimate playoff precitions, but looking at the teams going into the season what does everyone think?

My prediction:

East

1. Miami
2. Knicks
3. Pacers
4. Bulls
5. Nets
6. Pistons
7. Cavaliers
8. Hawks

- I think the bucks, bobcats, and wizards are going to make a decent push for the playoffs too. the fight for 7-8 seed in the east will be very interesting and tight IMO.

West

1. Clippers
2. OKC
3. Memphis
4. Warriors
5. Houston
6. Spurs
7. Denver
8. Lakers

- the wolves, blazers, and MAYBE the pelicans may be able to make a push for the play offs, but im not too sure that it will be a more competitive race than the east, we will see.

[masoud nekounam]

The Celtics are going to absolutely blow this year. At least relegation isn't possible in the NBA...

[EKBATAN]

NO haddadi NO Kazemi NO party




sucks these 2 guys wont be in NBA, earlier this summer looked like we were gonna have 2 players in NBA, i guess it was too good to be true. Arsalan will be back most likely but haddadi is possibly gone for good. Unless he has an amazing year in china and a good world cup showing, maybe some NBA team will pick him next year.




as far as this year goes, i'd say Miami Heat once again, if they stay healthy

[EKBATAN]

The Celtics are going to absolutely blow this year. At least relegation isn't possible in the NBA...

i wish it was cuz they are ruining the league

it doesnt give ANY incenstive to the bottom half of the league to do any good for the year....so either you're a playoff team or just tank it so you can get a good draft pick. Its pretty stupid cuz it throws off the league balance.

[ali alipour]

Nobodies expecting the raptors to do anything this year but mark my words they will be a very good team. With the likes of gay,derozan,lowry,valenciounas, hansborough, augustin, they can fight for the 6th seed and maybe even 4th or 5th if bk or chicago slip up. Also Miami did not have a walk in the park last season. Both the conference finals and the finals went to game 7's and remember game six should have been won by san antonio if they didnt choke in the last 30 seconds. The east is a lot stronger this year and a miami three peat is unlikely but possible. Also people who are expection Brooklyn and Detroit to be super duper are wrong since it has clearly been shown that huge roster changes in the off season don't bring success unless that change is Lebron James. Just look at L.A they failed even with Kobe so don't expect Bk and Detroit to make late playoff runs same thing with Houston. Also watch out for the mavs the calderon, ellis, nowitski with three is gonna be nice

[Darvish11]

Last season everyone overreacted and crowned the Lakers west champions after getting howard, now as a result of that everyone is underestimating the Rockets. All the analysts have them 4-6 in the west, Aldridge has them as the 10th best in the league. This is crazy. Do you guys not realize how good James Harden is at the pick and roll? He showed how deadly he was with nick collison in OKC, last year he had basically nobody to run it with and still was outstanding in all of his pnr numbers. Now you add one of the best pnr big men in the NBA? And everyone on that team will improve this year, unlike the Lakers. Parsons will be better, Lin will be better, Motiejunas will be better, Terrence Jones will be better. If they really commit to defense it wouldnt suprise me at all if the rockets win it all this year. Much more likely next year, but this year wouldnt shock me.

And to the person above me, huge offseason changes dont bring success? Celtics-Garnett? Lakers- Gasol? Chandler-Mavs? Shaq-Heat? Shaq-Lakers?

[ali alipour]

^ do you know what huge means? I meant bringing in multiple new players that completely change the team like bringing in nash and howard. There is no way the rockets will content this year simply because of howard. A contender needs depth something houston doesnt have. Everyone thinks the heat won because of the big 3 but in reality it was their depth. It was allen who kept them alive im game 6. Houston will not win with simply howard harden and parsons, they have no depth lin is garbage

[Ghermez Agha]

I forgot to mention the raptors in my play off race pick. I don't think they'll be a pushover by any means. rudy gay has some nice pieces to work with, they may be able to make a push for 8th. cant really see anything higher.

I agree with darvish11 on the lakers. its literally just sad how analyst are sometimes. I really feel that most of them will just look at rosters and tell you the team with the better squad is the better team. honestly, the only reason I have the lakers at 8 is because kobe always finds away to make something happen, they will get swept regardless of who they play in the first round but that's still good considering the fact that they don't look too promising.

plus im not as excited about harden and Dwight as I am with lin vs Dwight. man that's gonna be a special partnership, you give lin a good big man to work with and he'll be putting up some nice numbers. I watched him first hand at the garden, and the crap I used to hear about teams not knowing how to defend him is one of the dumbest things ive ever heard. yeah, maybe after the first two, three, or 4 games it was legitimate. but after having a few hours worth of film im pretty sure you should know how a player plays....

[Darvish11]

^ do you know what huge means? I meant bringing in multiple new players that completely change the team like bringing in nash and howard. There is no way the rockets will content this year simply because of howard. A contender needs depth something houston doesnt have. Everyone thinks the heat won because of the big 3 but in reality it was their depth. It was allen who kept them alive im game 6. Houston will not win with simply howard harden and parsons, they have no depth lin is garbage

If you dont think adding Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett is "huge" then I dont know what to tell you.

Houston has plenty of depth, their backup center, PG, and PF (whoever loses the battle) could all be starters on different teams. And Lin is not garbage at all, he just happens to be playing in an era with the best PGs in history, if he were playing 10 years ago he would be in the top 10 easily. As ghermez agha said when he has a center he can dump off to once he gets past the initial defender (which he does with regularity, especially when the focus is on harden all the time) he will really cause damage.

[EKBATAN]

American sports analysts are some of the most idiotic people in all of the world of sports analysts.
They talk out of their ass and go by stats and what they hear on twitter or other reporters. They also have their own biased opinions. So i dont ever watch many sport analysts.....especially on ESPN....they are by far the worst sports channel ever. lol

[Ghermez Agha]

hugeeeeee win for the lakers. nobody saw that one coming, that's a prime example of a win that comes from hard work and heart. the lakers just wanted it more at the end of the day....really impressed by farmar. I didn't think he had it in him to pull off that kind of performance. I expected good displays from Wesley Johnson and Xavier henry too, but not that good. a few more games like that and laker nation can have some hopes of actually not getting swept in the play offs this year, if they make it

[EKBATAN]

wow didnt know farmar was back lol
i missed the game yesterday....but lakers arent gonna do shit this year


this year is prob one of the worst NBA seasons.....just hand it over to Miami

[Ghermez Agha]

^ I respectfully disagree ekbatan, I think quite the opposite. I think it will be one of the best ever and ill tell u why.

the east has gotten MUCH better. Stephen A said it best earlier. lets assume Miami will finish 1st, which we know they will. the 8 seed will probably be Washington, Atlanta, charolete, cleaveland, etc. a team like that will most likely get swept. now go into the second round and theyre probably going to play a much better team like Indiana, new York, Brooklyn, or Chicago. in last years second round they played a depleted bulls team that was missing their star, who makes that team 1000x better. that being said, the second round wont be a walk through the park for them. then u put one of those teams again I just listed up against them in the finals, and their task is even harder.

the heat are definitely favorites, no doubt about it theyre back to back champs. HOWEVER, the eastern conference is going to put up a much better fight against them in the regular season, and even more so in the playoffs.

and on the west, that conference is wideeeeeee open. there is no heavy favorite to finish #1 and represent the west in the finals. top choices would be OKC and the clippers, but Houston, GS, and even san Antonio could easily upset in the play offs this year.

im expecting a very exciting nba season, hope im right

[IranFootball10]

mashallah lakers!! good win to start the season!

[Ghermez Agha]

how about those 6ers? I picked up Michael carter Williams in the 7th round of my draft with 12 ppl, hands down the biggest steal for me, I didn't expect him to do more than 11-12pts a game and 4-5 assists.

by the way, I know its only been 3-4 games in, but man was I right or what about the league improving? minesotta, phili, phoenix, all some pretty surprising results so far