NBA is back! Still don't care much for the season starting in mid October but it's nice to have some games to watch throughout the week. Looking forward to the Philly/Boston game tonight.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Best time of the year. All of the important sports leagues are active and you have a hood game to watch pretty much every night.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Philly-Boston is shaping up to be the best rivalry in the league for the next few years. I'm glad to see both teams at full strength. Should be a good one.

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Embiid has to stay healthy.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Yeah I think the schedule they had him on last year seemed to work out fine. Didn't practice. Still able to play at a high level even without it. He just plays a little to reckless for me at times. I think it comes down to Fultz. If he can show anything this year they are going to be dangerous. They need another guy that can create off the dribble plus playing him at the 1 allows them to post Simmons. Fultz is the wild card.

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Agreed.

No reason to still be playing LCS's. NHL and NBA should not start until November, and should be done by Mid-May.

NFL is the only league that has about the perfect season length.

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Whoa man. Relax.

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East
Boston
Toronto
Philly

West
Golden State
Houston
Jazz

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Works for me.

Not sure Philly is a contender though. I still don't trust Embiid's health and as Hussra pointed out Ilyasova and Bellinelli were a big part of their success last year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'm not nearly as excited about this season as I was last year for some reason. I feel like I should be on paper, especially with the East opening up a bit more, but I'm not as enthused about any of the free agency moves and young talent as I was going into last year. Lebron going to LA and Kawhi going to Toronto are bigger single moves than anything that happened last year, but I don't see Lebron doing anything this year and we all thought Kawhi would be playing for a much better San Antonio team going into last year anyway.

The other big issue of course is that the NFL in general has been more enjoyable this season, whereas the last two seasons I was dying for the NBA to start.

If Kawhi is actually committed to playing hard in Toronto this season, which he seems like he is, I guess, then Toronto is extremely dangerous. Their defense should be suffocating.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Oh for sure. I almost said in my post I just want to fast forward to the Boston-Toronto ECF that looks so likely. It's just that a committed Kawhi on last year's Spurs would have made for an even more dangerous and interesting team.

Agreed

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Toronto has too many guys that don't show up i.e Lowry and Ibaka when it matters most. Philly is the team in the East with the most upside. Barring injury it should be they along with Boston.

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

You've been wrong about Philly every step of the way. Glad to see you keeping up the fight however. At somepoint you will be right about something. Don't anticipate it happening anytime soon however.

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I think a lot of people are sleeping on Toronto. They had the best record in the East last season and they inarguably got a lot better this year. They had a top 5 defense last year with non defender DeRozan and replaced him with one of the top defenders in the league. They also replaced Poetl with Danny Green which is a big upgrade.

Philly is the sexy pick, but they have a lot of big questions. Fultz? Can Simmons become reliable in the half court and at the free throw line?

Boston is the easy pick for #1 because of how well they did last year without Gordon all year and without Kyrie in the playoffs.

Lots of people think that the coaching change in Milwaukee will be enough to greatly improve that team. I'm not so sure. I favor Indiana over Milwaukee. They took Lebron to 7 games last year and have a rising superstar in Oladipo.

After that you've got the next tier of Washington and Miami followed by Detroit and maybe Charlotte.

I have the east as

1. Toronto
2. Boston
3. Philly
4. Indiana
5. Milwaukee
6. Washington
7. Miami (move them up to 6 or maybe even 5 if they get Butler)
8. Detroit
9. Charlotte
10. New Jersey (might be higher, but I think they have their own pick this year finally and less incentive to win now)
11. Chicago
12. Orlando
13. Atlanta
14. New York

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I was right about Porky and your love for guys that can't shoot and Lebron makes players better.....oh and tanking is not a road to getting better!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I agree. Leonard has to prove himself again and do it with Pop.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

1. Yet you lost the Philly bet and ducked on the Lebron bet.
2. You called been Simmons a bust basically and was wrong about it in 20 seconds.
3. Jabari Parker you are claiming before he plays an official game.
4.Lebron "makes players better". What does that mean? very few guys get better if any from playing with him. He has done wonders for J.R. Smith hasn't he?

5. 6'10 guys that can't shoot 3's is your claim to fame? You sure aim high don't you?
6. Ben Simmons is a budding All Star and you are still clinging to "He can't shoot! He Can't Shoot! as if you are hipping the world to something. They knew that and he still was the overwhelming choice to be the No. 1 pick. His not being able to shoot didn't prevent him from winning Rookie of the Year either. This occurred even as he played in a particularly strong class.


They've known that he couldn't shoot since he was a high school player and it hasn't stopped anything. Keep clinging to the fallacious hope he will be a bust and I will continue to embarrass you every chance I get.

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Leonard playing for $$$$$$$$$$$$$ he doesn't care where he's going to get itfrom...he'll get it!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

_________________
I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

1. Bud's Bucks
2. Pacer
3. Celtic
4. Raptor
5. Heat
6. Sixer
7. Wizard
8. da Bull

2nd game will be a letdown without Westbrook.

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I think a letdown implied people think it will be a good game. I think most people would agree that game will suck.

It wouldn't be all that competitive even with Westbrook though.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They have blown out the Warriors on Several occasions over the past couple of seasons. OKC made some under the radar moves to solidify their bench. That was the biggest problem on their team last year. I also am interested to see if Donovan (who is coaching for his life) will play Westbrook off the ball more with Shroeder on the squad. OKC will be better than people think this year.

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People already think they will be a top 6 team in the NBA this year. I think that's asinine, but I don't think there's much room to be better than people think unless you think they are the 2nd best team in the West and a top 3 team in the NBA.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

No if they get the 3rd seed that constitutes better than people think. Not a lot of people have them penciled in for that.

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Sixers at Celts is the opening night matchup?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Nothing gets by you

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul