Your Official 2010-2011 General NBA Thread

[RhymesayersDU]

Well, it's about that time. Your General NBA thread for the 2010-2011 season. I think it's going to be a real good season. The offseason was bananas, for obvious reasons. We're coming off another Lakers championship. Miami is apparently the basketball center of the universe. Kevin Durant is beyond ridiculous. The Knicks got Amar'e. Do the Celtics or Spurs have another run in them?

But for me personally, there's three main storylines I'm looking forward to. I realize everybody will have their own, and I'm excited to see what fans of different teams are excited for. But here's what I'm looking forward to seeing:



1) Will anybody be able to unseat the defending champs out West? Are we heading for another dynasty?



2) Look, I've bought into the hype. Period. I didn't watch their pre-season game tonight, but my eyes will be glued to the TV come opening night. Will the Heat just waltz into an NBA Finals showdown with the Lakers? Will their lack of depth be their downfall?



3) Ah, the boys in blue & gold. Let's face it, we're not talking about wins and losses, we're talking about the guy on the right. Carmelo. He's gone I'm sure. The question is, can the Nuggets swing a good trade, dump some salary, and get the rebuild started efficiently? I had talked myself into being OK with the trade to the Nets. But apparently that's dead. So we'll have to see what the future of this team holds as we get closer to February.

PREMIER NIGHT IS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26TH!
HEAT @ CELTICS, 7:30 PM EST (TNT)
SUNS @ TRAILBLAZERS, 10:00 PM EST
ROCKETS @ LAKERS, 10:30 PM EST (TNT)

WHAT SAY YOU, NBA FAN? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE UPCOMING SEASON?

[CBF1]

May I be the first to say..... GO LAKERS

[Dedhed]

My only wish for the coming NBA season is that the Heat have a losing record.

[RhymesayersDU]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

My only wish for the coming NBA season is that the Heat have a losing record.

I was wondering what the Heat backlash would be. I gotta say, I'm excited to see them. Plus, my hatred is reserved for division rivals and the Lakers. I just don't really hate Eastern Conference teams.

[Dedhed]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

I was wondering what the Heat backlash would be. I gotta say, I'm excited to see them. Plus, my hatred is reserved for division rivals and the Lakers. I just don't really hate Eastern Conference teams.

I think it's beyond queer what those guys did, and, for me, guarantees that Lebron will never legitimately be compared to Jordan.

[Man-Goblin]

Watched the heat preseason game for about 20 minutes. Then Wade got hurt. What a surprise! Apparently, he didn't time his steroids cycle right.

In other news, the Nuggets have a chance to be the only team in West that can challenge the Lakers! Just like last year, until they lost their coach, and the year before.

Oh but wait. Their star player's fame whore wife wants a bigger city. Nevermind that last part.

Too bad the Bulls locked up Noah. It's almost impossible now, but a Deng-Noah trade would have made the Nuggets better than they would have been with Melo. Oh well.

Melo will get traded. But unfortunately it won't be until after the season starts. I fear that the closer it gets to February the more his value goes down. Hopefully, it will be the opposite and spark a bidding war between teams with actual assets.

[RhymesayersDU]

I like Noah a lot but do not like Deng or his contract.

[Man-Goblin]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

I like Noah a lot but do not like Deng or his contract.

The contract is the thing. The trade would have never happened anyway because the Nuggets don't want to take on money. But would they have been better? Yes.

By about the middle of December, they would have had 5 legitimate big men. 5. All with different skill sets. Not even the Lakers could have boasted that, and the Nuggets would have had as many fouls to give as they wanted. Plus, they would have replaced the small forward spot and about 75% of Melo's scoring.

Add that to the fact that Noah is a great defensive player and Deng is better on D than Melo. Yes, they would have been better.

And since it's not my wallet, I could give a damn about Deng's contract. Cap space means nothing. No superstar player is going to want to go play in cold ass Denver after Melo, K-Mart, probably JR, and maybe Chauncey are gone after 2010-11.

[RhymesayersDU]

Deng isn't better than Melo in anything. He's not that good.

Cap space means everything. If Durant can re-up in OKC, anything is possible. @ "cold-ass Denver."

[TDmvp]

GO CELTS !!!

[OABB]

As these threads are always my favorites, I just want to say I'm excited. Hey has anyone seen lex?

What a failure.

Anyways, let's go lakers!

[Man-Goblin]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

Deng isn't better than Melo in anything. He's not that good.

Cap space means everything. If Durant can re-up in OKC, anything is possible. @ "cold-ass Denver."

Sure, Deng is a poor man's Melo. Everyone knows that. But you would also be getting Noah and probably a couple of picks. I just think the defense and rebounding they'd pick up would cancel out the scoring they would lose, with the Deng and Harrington additions picking up some of the scoring slack.

And don't get me wrong. I love Denver. There's not a place on the planet I would rather live. But it won't be a desirable FA landing spot, especially if the Nuggets are a poor team. We've seen it before. So other than being able to take on salary in trades, cap space is meaningless.

Durant is a different cat. At this point in his career it doesn't seem to matter to him where he plays. With him in particular I don't see that changing, especially since the OKC looks like they're going to be good for a long time. But in reality, all he did was re-up after his first contract. Even Melo and Lebron did that.

The point is, unless you really care about Stan Kroenke's wallet, any cap space the Nuggets 'gain' will only land them the Charlie Villanuevas of the league and not anyone that really matters.

Do you have 2-3 names of superstars that are going to be available in the next couple years that you think would come to Denver? Am I missing something here?

[Rock Chalk]

Originally Posted by McMan-Goblin

Watched the heat preseason game for about 20 minutes. Then Wade got hurt. What a surprise! Apparently, he didn't time his steroids cycle right.

In other news, the Nuggets have a chance to be the only team in West that can challenge the Lakers! Just like last year, until they lost their coach, and the year before.

Oh but wait. Their star player's fame whore wife wants a bigger city. Nevermind that last part.

Too bad the Bulls locked up Noah. It's almost impossible now, but a Deng-Noah trade would have made the Nuggets better than they would have been with Melo. Oh well.

Melo will get traded. But unfortunately it won't be until after the season starts. I fear that the closer it gets to February the more his value goes down. Hopefully, it will be the opposite and spark a bidding war between teams with actual assets.

Except that two years ago they werent the only team the challenge the Lakers. In fact, they didnt even give them their best Challenge.

Rockets took em to 7 without T-Mac or Yao. Nuggets got beat in what, 5?

Rockets were the only team to take the lakers to 7 that season.

Of course, last year the boys in red and gold sucked, but I got confidence this year!

[spdirty]

I just want to see Melo have to play a regular season game in blue and gold before getting traded. Heard he attended an MMA fight and once the fans heard he was there a glorious chant of "**** YOU MELO!" took the place over.

The NBA is screwed.

[Man-Goblin]

Originally Posted by Rock Chalk

Except that two years ago they werent the only team the challenge the Lakers. In fact, they didnt even give them their best Challenge.

Rockets took em to 7 without T-Mac or Yao. Nuggets got beat in what, 5?

Rockets were the only team to take the lakers to 7 that season.

Of course, last year the boys in red and gold sucked, but I got confidence this year!

Nuggets lost in 6. I really thought they had a chance to beat them, but they lost games 1 and 5 at Staples with stupid execution inside the final minute. Still burns me up.

[TheChamp24]

One reason why I like the NFL structure is the franchise tag, so **** like Melo/James/Bosh bolting doesn't happen.
It royally pisses me off the Nuggets will be forced to trade or have him walk away in free agency, a guy who probably if he keeps it up will be a Hall of Famer. The Nuggets are willing to give him money, and begging him to stay and stay a perennial contender with him. But he wants to be whipped and in the glorious fame of the Nets. If he doesn't stay, I hope he falters soooooooooo bad.

[worm]

GMs pick Lakers to win NBA title
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5654644

...Bryant (79 percent) was the pick of the GMs as the player they'd rely on to take a shot with the game on the line...

Oh Lexxxxxxxxx!

[24champ]

[ohiobronco2]

Originally Posted by worm

GMs pick Lakers to win NBA title
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5654644

...Bryant (79 percent) was the pick of the GMs as the player they'd rely on to take a shot with the game on the line...

Oh Lexxxxxxxxx!

Rumor has it that LeBron thinks that race played a factor in the GM's selecting the lakers.

[Bahshay]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

I was wondering what the Heat backlash would be. I gotta say, I'm excited to see them. Plus, my hatred is reserved for division rivals and the Lakers. I just don't really hate Eastern Conference teams.

My hate for the Heat stems from the fact that they might have begun the downfall of the NBA as a legitimate sports league. When the 3 of them banded together, every other superstar took notice. The Celtics started the trend by getting 3 all-stars together, but that now isn't enough. Most superstars now want to be teamed with 1 or 2 additional superstars. Amare is trying to build his team in NY, and might be able to pull it off. Carmelo wants to be traded. CP3 wants out. Tony Parker (though not quite at the level of the last 2) will probably choose to sign with the team that gives him a chance to compete. Unfortunately, competing now means compiling talent comparable to the Lakers and Heat.

When almost all of the 10-12 legitimate stars of the league band together onto 5 teams, whats the point of watching the other 25 teams? I honestly think some teams begin to fold over the next few years as they lose fans. Other teams will hold out longer but will give up eventually. If only 4-5 teams have any chance at competing, why would the fans show up for the other teams? Most teams are already losing money as it is.

I'm a Sixers fan, but I'm cheering for OKC this year. I think Durant is the league's last hope.

[Missouribronc]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

3) Ah, the boys in blue & gold. Let's face it, we're not talking about wins and losses, we're talking about the guy on the right. Carmelo. He's gone I'm sure. The question is, can the Nuggets swing a good trade, dump some salary, and get the rebuild started efficiently? I had talked myself into being OK with the trade to the Nets. But apparently that's dead. So we'll have to see what the future of this team holds as we get closer to February.

He's as good as gone. If the Nuggets front office is stupid enough to play a season with him and then let him go for nothing, then they deserve to suck as bad as they will suck when him, Billups and Karl are gone.

Back to being the perennial doormat, the last seven or eight years was at least entertaining.

War Todd Lichti.

[RhymesayersDU]

I'm not giving up. Yeah we're starting over, but we kind of needed to anyways. Do I want to lose Carmelo? Of course not. But we need to lose KMart, Nene, etc. We have a lot of highly paid slugs on our team who are keeping our hands tied and not performing on the court.

Like I said, I want to keep Carmelo, but a rebuild was in order either way.

[gunns]

Didn't the season just end yesterday

My one astute prediction for the new season. The Jazz will still suck and still won't get why. Poor Williams

GO CELTS!

[RhymesayersDU]

The Jazz won't suck. Not under Sloan.

They might not be a top-tier team, but they won't suck.

[Missouribronc]

Originally Posted by RhymesayersDU

I'm not giving up. Yeah we're starting over, but we kind of needed to anyways. Do I want to lose Carmelo? Of course not. But we need to lose KMart, Nene, etc. We have a lot of highly paid slugs on our team who are keeping our hands tied and not performing on the court.

Like I said, I want to keep Carmelo, but a rebuild was in order either way.

You have to build around Nene and J.R. Smith then, if you don't trade Melo. I think, even as painful as it is, they just have to trade him. At least with the rumored trade you get Favors, who you could build around.

Unless Melo signs the extension, in my opinioin, you have to trade him. If you dont , you're just good enough to not have a high draft pick to get someone to build toward the future, and you're stuck building around roll players in Smith, Nene and Lawson. That's not a playoff team.