2017-18 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD PART 1 ALL OF AMERICAS FAVORITE TEAMS ARE BACK

if they manage to get one of the superstars of this draft then maybe booker and josh jackson slot in next to that guy as really good second and third tier players but....

yeah not much faith they can make the right pick. i bet they can re-sign elfrid for a fair contract, tho. he's still only 23 and is what they need at pg, someone who can feed booker.

Warriors coaching themselves was very cool and a good way to keep them awake against a terrible team in the dog days before all star

I thought he was just gonna have iggy do it each time bc iggy is extremely smart and probably a future coach if he wants but it looks like everybody got a turn

mitchell gotta be the ROY

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 12:21 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haven’t seen as much of him as Tatum who has obv cooled way off but he is phenomenal. I thought they were gonna try to ride this “Rodney Hood can be 90% of Hayward” garbage every hoop pundit was on before the season but since that wasn’t real it was smart to just go ahead and hand over the team to Mitchell with jingles sidekickin

Hood is fine btw and I think perfect for where he landed

lol rude to the suns

Kerr is letting the players coach against the Suns tonight 😅 pic.twitter.com/Ty9inJVLtQ

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 13, 2018

Cross training is good.

http://a2.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2018%2F0212%2Fnba_wine_5x2.jpg&w=1600&h=640&scale=crop&cquality=40&location=origin

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/22358028/the-nba-obsession-wine

The river of black shuttle buses negotiates sharp switchbacks, bouncing upward along miles of uneven pavement that fades into dirt, from two lanes to one, climbing beneath oak forest that blocks out the morning light. Cellphone service dwindles to nothing. Finally, a metal gate appears, a large "M" at its center, and soon the Cleveland Cavaliers pour out of the buses. About 60 members of the franchise gather near tables covered in white cloth, sitting atop cedar bark spread across a small clearing. They clink flutes of 2006 Dom Pérignon in toast. Nearby, all around the property, lies charred earth. Burned hillsides, stippled with the black skeletons of trees, loom ominous.

This is Mayacamas, one of Napa Valley's most iconic wineries. Not many of the Cavs have been here, but LeBron James has, and he recognizes that the area where he's standing now, the small clearing, once belonged to a building that is no more.

The fire, when it came, had raced in from the west, feeding on dry underbrush, roaring over the hills. Winds swept it along the edges of and into Mayacamas' vineyards, the intense heat threatening dormant vines harvested not long before. Workers evacuated as flames neared the winery, not knowing what -- if anything -- would survive. When staffers returned weeks later, they saw how the flames had crept to the edge of the three main buildings, licked up their sides, leaving deep black scars near the foundation. Millions in damage was caused, though the true toll will be tallied when it becomes clear which vines can still bud in the spring. But somehow the fire had devoured only one of the buildings, a 5,000-square-foot, two-story Italian villa-style structure used for hospitality and dining.

"It's a miracle," says Mayacamas assistant winemaker Braiden Albrecht.

Mayacamas hadn't hosted any groups since that October blaze. No groups, that is, until today, a clear, brisk late-December Thursday -- two days before James' 33rd birthday -- when the Cavaliers arrive for a midseason two-day Napa getaway.

At Mayacamas, organizers had rushed to prepare for the Cavaliers, hauling away burned rubble in huge bins. Now, after the champagne toast, players gather beside fermentation tanks before moving next door to a spacious living room, where glasses of 2015 chardonnay and 2013 cabernet dot a heavy wooden table. They playfully sneak more glasses of wine. James tries to tempt rookie forward Cedi Osman, who, along with some of the other rookies, isn't into wine just yet. "Drink me ... " James says, holding the glass near Osman, but Osman declines. "Their loss," James would say later. "More for me."

Mayacamas winemaker Andy Erickson introduces the chardonnay by describing how proud he is that it's not a typical Napa Valley chardonnay, not over-the-top with buttery-tasting notes. The players sip and are asked for their thoughts. Guard J.R. Smith, sitting on a couch against a back wall, raises his hand. What comes to mind as he sips the wine?

"It's like butter," Smith says, smiling. Laughter erupts from all over. Classic J.R.

god they made Kevin drink alone

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/22358028/the-nba-obsession-wine

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2018/0212/r327036_608x488cc.jpg

ha bron focused on the wine

wine article is a trip

if i had a fuckton of money i would also get really into wine

the wine story, the pb&j story, the halal food w kanter & okc story, the cheesecake factory obsession story, my kind of nba reporting

also the curry under armour vs nike story

agreed good glimpse into the nba life

in retrospect the halal article was when we should have been certain kd was leaving

considering tuesdays are usually the second worst days of the week, the basketball gods have blessed us with a nice lineup of games tonight

cavs okc game is a good one

raptors/heat league pass alert

Andrew Wiggins is 0/12 ...

shooters shooy

cavs are good

smh

im mad at the cavs for making cool trades

i remain incredulous at all the incredible stuff they threw together at the last minute

in zach lowe pod w/ howard beck he was saying the team just like makes sense compositionally again which is what shined thru to me in the game on sunday even if it was clear they wouldn't always play that well. it just looked like they had the kind of players you want to have around lebron.

getting a guy like nance who can credibly play center vs most lineups but can also run the floor was very savvy. and just getting younger and faster.

yup he killed the thunder tonight w just flat out hustle

feel like there are still some ppl out there saying nance isn't that good who are going to have trouble backing up that opinion

i'm still really impressed by the trades, i mean maybe this is damning w/faint praise b/c i know they took clarkson's money and gave up a pick but they moved 6 players that weren't helping them. yeah the fact that they had those players to begin with isn't a great thing but for a capped-out team with no flexibility they did as good as you could do

people were down on clarkson too but ive always liked him. they were both on a crap franchise that didnt know what to do w them. thyeve been trying to trade clarkson ever since he broke out.

even if all the moves did was reinvigorate lebron then mission accomplished.

as a lifelong procrastinator and underachiever, i applaud these cavs for getting their shit together right before the end of season project is due

― they call me melo gelo (Spottie), Tuesday, February 13, 2018 9:39 PM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao at the DN. too in-house for the finest thread, but too good not to share.

otm that is a great dn

lol i did not even notice it that's great

thx bros

LeBron seems super invigorated now and even just in interviews his mood is like Scrooge on Xmas morning. Enough so that maybe he sticks around Cleveland? Idk, for all his drama he doesn't seem apt to abandon the franchise a second time as readily as he did before. The postseason will probably be the determining factor. How well they compete and all...

Hood seems very good maybe....? I was only watching the box score tonight tbh.

the knocks on hood are basically health and fortitude which are very real things but if he goes on a streak of being available it will be interesting.

as much as i'm loathe to cite bill simmons for real facts he has outlined a compelling case for lebron to the lakers. if that doesn't happen (and it seems like it's delicate at best) i can't find a better option than back to cleveland.

if they can talk lebron into sticking around and maybe flip the nets pick + some of the new guys for a big piece they're prob still at the top of the EC for a few more years

yeah that has to be their angle

i can't find a better option than back to cleveland.

take below market value to play w cp and harden

i don't think he'll take below market and we would need to find a stronger word than shallow to describe that team.

ok but lebron to spurs is confirmed tho

the negative things about the trades that ppl have brought up just weren't that big of a deal to me. like clarkson's money... if bron leaves then what does it matter you need to pay somebody. if bron comes back his contract would be movable after a year probably if you wanted to get rid of him. giving up their own first round pick in that deal was more of an issue but given how desperate they must have been to break up that team and how intractable the trade market seemed it's not the end of the world.

I feel like in the abstract there's a very good case for the Lakers and Rockets but at the same time I think Lebron was more stung by announcementgate than he already let on, I mean he played angry but I also think he loves his hometown enough that whatever the franchise issues are I'm not sure at this point that he's halfway out the door.

all the stuff about lebron playing for the lakers makes 100% sense to me... i buy it totally. i just don't see why he has to do it this year. he could take 1+1 contracts for the rest of his career and pick his spot every offseason if he really wanted to. i feel like he's much more likely to sign a 2 year deal w/ a team that has actual players and then see if the lakers look better in 2020 or w/e.

to expand on that, played angry bc he was pissed about the reaction back there and being branded as a traitor, but he also deep down was maybe a bit regretful somewhere. Idk.

i think i've said it before but narrative has been a huge component of lebron's other moves and as much as he's interested in winning there's just no narrative component to going to houston or philadelphia or whatever else people talk about.

The only one who knows for sure is Mr. Snrub