It is the years 2018-19 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) - The Regular Season

yeah i hope the east is an absolute slugfest

feel like steve kerr hasnt really shown up at all this year like yr super team has some probs bud maybe take a crack at fixing it idk

it's very hard for me to conceive of the bucks making a complete playoff run. toronto too for a different set of reasons. the warriors should be able to size up any first-time finals team and roast them.

i said early in the season i thought the eastern team had a great chance to win this year... the warriors look vulnerable every year in the playoffs and the east has 4 teams that can compete with them this year

2nd rounds and beyond on both sides should be a blast.

if the raptors can get there i think they have the best shot... they match up well and kawhi is good enough to swing a series vs any team

i agree it’s still too early for the bucks

The warriors went 16-1 in the offs two years ago xxp

i think all of the good east teams cld cause the dubs matchup problems in their own ways

i do believe in the nba truism that you must first suffer multiple playoff defeats — often crushing! — before you can ascend up the ladder

raps and celtics "have a lot of guys to throw at them" bucks have giannis and philly has size

Looking more and more like Gordon Hayward isn’t gonna be ready this year so I’m not worried about the Celtics as much any more.

celtics also a very low turnover team and the dubs need turnovers to be great

hayward has been playing good actually

for toronto to win kawhi will have to be totally dominant and lowry will have to show he's past his playoff baggage. those things....could happen. idk if i'm betting on them.

toronto having a 1st year coach is dubious too

hayward has been awful since the all star break which coincided with his practice ankle sprain but i just don't think it's happening this year.

Yah Hayward looks ok when Kyrie doesn’t play, just a slight problem

i haven't seen that correlation at all. hayward always gets second unit minutes and generally sucks in them.

Philly is just ... so many new pieces. A total coin flip.

i still wld not be at all surprised if the celtics flip the switch but its obvs a lot less likely than if they had already done it

philly isn't deep enough to make a serious run. i've been laughing all season at ppl being like "wait for the buyout market" as if they had some kind of secret sauce that would replicate the ilyasova and belinelli signings.

yeah its not really what u want to bet on

Lotta teams who we don’t really know what they are yet ha. Even the rockets, haven’t been healthy all year but if cp is good to go for the playoff push and capella is good to go then they can make as much noise as anyone. Thunder are peaking now, can they sustain it or will they cool? Denver who knows what this team will look like in the playoffs.

rockets sneaking and winning it all this year wld be pretty tite

xp that's why it's still smart to bet on the warriors tbh

Yep

no the warriors are cooked

Maybe but they could still win it being cooked.

yeah i mean they def cld but it wld be more dramatic if they didnt

the much touted "hunger" that people talk so much about does not appear to be operating for the dubs this season. of course, we won't really know what they're up to until the playoffs begin. the regular season no doubt bores them, especially after setting the record for regular season wins they lost in the finals.

the thing about the celtics that I haven’t seen enough people really discuss is that even when they’ve rattled off those impressive runs it’s always been blowing out bad teams. they’re 11-14 against teams .500 and above, which it turns out are the ones u play against in the offs

its harder to beat good teams

true but it seems relevant to a discussion of a teams chances of making a deep playoff run

http://www.espn.co.uk/nba/table/_/view/expanded

11-15 actually

the thing with the celtics is theyve just woefully underachieved their talent but like its possible that they will achieve their talent or at least come closer

i think ppl feel like overall they've played the top of the east tough even when it hasn't resulted in wins. iirc they haven't played the west very well at all.

the point I'm making is that the flashes they've shown that make people think that have largely been against bad teams which maybe doesn't mean as much as you'd think initially xp

but also play up until now maybe doesnt mean as much as youd think initially

hmm actually playing bad is a bad sign

it's best to play well, generally a good indicator

im not saying it doesnt matter

this nuggets/jazz game is 32-24 halfway through the 2nd quarter, what year is this

i've been watching the celtics and there is no indication that they're just going to figure it out in the playoffs. it could happen but it won't be anything we can see currently.

i think ramping up the defensive intensity wld go a long way

also in the playoffs al horford starts yelling which really gets everyone fired up

the donovan mitchell scoop layups are sweet to behold. nuggets made that game good!

gary harris has shot it really poorly this year. hopefully he can stay healthy and get some rhythm heading into the playoffs

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2822720-as-luka-doncic-turns-20-nba-marvels-at-runaway-rookie-of-the-year

Some debated if Doncic had enough athleticism for the NBA. Even now, one executive has doubts: "It was expected he would perform ahead of his class, given the fact that he did stuff that no other young player had done in the European league...but it's hard to say he's going to be an MVP-type player because he's already so good this young, and athletically, he doesn't have the upside of many other kids."

idk...

pic.twitter.com/ihSdmbQ8u3

— sebastian guillen (@sgllen_10) January 3, 2019

lol yeah already so good young is exactly not an argument against being better later