Pro Hoops 2K14-2K15

[Guard Dog]

Nice win for the Grizz tonight vs the Pacers. I've got tickets for the game against NO on Monday. Not great seats, but not terrible either.

[Leferd]

This is how I see playoff seeding will play out.

 

Western Conference

 

1. San Antonio Spurs

2. Golden State Warriors

3. LA Clippers

4. Dallas Mavericks

5. Memphis Grizzlies

6. Houston Rockets

7. Rip City 

8a. OKC Thunder

8b. Phoenix Suns

8c. Minnesota Timberwolves

8d. NOLA

 

Eastern Conference

 

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Chicago Bulls

3. Washington Bullets

4. Toronto Drakes

5. Charlotte Hornets

6. Atlanta Hawks

7. New York Knickerbockers

8. Brooklyn Nets

 

The Contenders

 

San Antonio Spurs: Defending Champs. The old reliable T-800 model.

 

Cleveland Cavaliers: Top heavy with a weak bench. Aside from Lebron and an aging Shawn Marion they don't have quality defenders and absolutely no rim protection. Still good enough for a top two seed in the East with their dangerous offensive weapons.

 

Chicago Bulls: Best Defense. Improved offense. All hinging on D-Rose.

 

OKC Thunder: They especially will have their work cut out for them in the second half (post Durant and Westbrook's return) to make the playoffs. That said, should they make it in, OKC can still make a deep playoff run.

 

Golden State Warriors: Combine a sneaky Top 5 Defense with a potential Top 3 Offense and they are a legit darkhorse favorite. They can lead the league in point differential.

 

LA Clippers: Really hesitating listing them here as something about their roster strikes me as off balance. Griffin and Paul make a potent PnR combo and are Top 10 players. But they don't have strong team defense and lack perimeter shooting.

 

 

[Keyrock]

As long as the KD and Westbrook injuries don't wind up keeping them out much longer than thought, I don't see them falling all the way to an 8 seed.  I see them as a 5 or 6 seed as long as KD and Westbrook return when most people think they will return.

[Leferd]

As long as the KD and Westbrook injuries don't wind up keeping them out much longer than thought, I don't see them falling all the way to an 8 seed.  I see them as a 5 or 6 seed as long as KD and Westbrook return when most people think they will return.

You think they can get to the 53+ wins it'll take to be a middle seed with Westbrook and Durant out two months?

[Keyrock]

I think 50 or 51 wins will be good enough for a 5 or 6 seed, and I think they can get to 50 or 51 wins as long as the KD and Westbrook injuries aren't prolonged. 

[Volourn]

The fact you have the Heat out of the playoffs entirely and Cleveland as #1 is  just illogical.

[Leferd]

The fact you have the Heat out of the playoffs entirely and Cleveland as #1 is  just illogical.

Was worried you wouldn't notice.

[Keyrock]

It all depends on how much D-Wade has left in the tank and whether his body disintegrates or not.  How many games are the Heat going to get from him this year?

Edited November 3, 2014 by Keyrock

[Leferd]

It all depends on how much D-Wade has left in the tank and whether his body disintegrates or not.  How many games are the Heat going to get from him this year?

Yep. I'm hesitant to be bullish on a Heat team that lacks depth and whose star guard has huge question marks regarding durability. They can still make the playoffs, but Both Wade and Bosh have to take it upon themselves a lot without too much help.

 

...

 

If OKC can hit 51 wins, they'll get in, but there's very little margin for error when and if KD and Westbrook come back in January.

[Volourn]

Heat arguably have more depth than last season. The only thing that makes them 'worse' is no Lebron but they aren't Cleveland. They are not gonna collapse w/o James.

[Leferd]

Wowsers.

 

 

 

They really ran with it.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Leferd

[Guard Dog]

Lady GD & I went to the Grizzlies game tonight. Another nice win to get to 4-0. So far Gasol, Prince & Randolph are a three man show. Lets hope it keeps going.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Guard Dog

[Keyrock]

Ricky Rubio is out 6 to 8 weeks with a severe ankle sprain.  Man, the injury list is growing quickly this season.  Maybe Ricky can spend those 6 to 8 weeks figuring out how to shoot the basketball?  Wishful thinking. 

[Leferd]

Warriors finally lose and are the last undefeated team.

 

Definitely needed that loss to kick them in the butt and force themselves to reflect on their sloppiness. 20+ turnovers a game is completely hamstringing potentially the best offense in the league. Statistically speaking, they already improved on last year's 4th ranked defense, and are top rated in both Defensive Rating and Opponent's FG%.

[ShadySands]

[Leferd]

That was nuts. And Memphis was down 26 at one point.

[ShadySands]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g181khk2Jyo

 

Of course Gun Shot Wound won the game but that was entertaining

Edited November 16, 2014 by ShadySands

[Volourn]

WHAT. THE HELL..

 

Oh. Lance. Please never change. You may be a good but overrated basketball player but youc an be hella entetraining.

 

Still cna't believe Jordan claims to have signed him  as some sort of 'Lebron Killer' despite the fact James has embarassed him 3 playoffs in a row. L0L

 

 

Speaking of James, he's gotta be MVP. Without him, Cavs would  be having another crappy season.

[Leferd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g181khk2Jyo

 

Of course Gun Shot Wound won the game but that was entertaining

To be fair...Lance did end up with a bloody mouth out of that. He definitely sold it as Barnes got called for the foul. Haha.

[Leferd]

So reports have it that KD is coming back tonight.

 

OKC is currently 5-12. They'll need to go 43-22 from here on out to get to the approximate 48 or so wins necessary to get into the playoffs. It'll be an interesting race.

 

Of course, we don't know if by rushing back, Westbrook and Durant are risking further injury.

[Leferd]

So we're a quarter of the way through the season and the West is insanely good. 

 

Dallas, the current #7 seed is on pace for 58 wins, and they're only 3 1/2 games behind Golden State for the top seed. And nobody, but NOBODY wants to win the top seed only to have to play OKC in the first round.

[Guard Dog]

So we're a quarter of the way through the season and the West is insanely good. 

 

Dallas, the current #7 seed is on pace for 58 wins, and they're only 3 1/2 games behind Golden State for the top seed. And nobody, but NOBODY wants to win the top seed only to have to play OKC in the first round.

No joke there. Only two games separate 1st & 4th in the Southwest. The Grizz are tough this year. I love a team that works hard and plays with grit. I've only been to one game to far but I'd like to go to a few after new years.

[Leferd]

The Memphis - Golden State matchup should be good. Hopefully Bogut is able to come back from the game.

 

...

 

The Kings though. To the wide shock of the NBA and media community, Sacramento fired Mike Malone, who is universally thought of as a very good coach, and had this team compete beyond expectation.

 

So it seems Vivek Ranadive and his management team wants to implement the philosophical principles they've tested out for their D-League team the Reno Big Horns.

 

This is a lab experiment in which they:

 

1) Average 140pts a game

2) Shoot 50 threes a game

3) Run a full time Full Court Press 

4) Constantly leave behind a cherry picker - in essence playing a 4 on 5 defense

 

I don't know if I'm hoping whether they succeed or fail.

[ShadySands]

Should be interesting to watch at least

[Guard Dog]

this week has been huge for the Grizz. a big win against Golden State and a bigger win against the Spurs. Just keep it up gents!