Minnesota Sports Forum

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Eric Gordon is looking like pre-knee injuries Gordon. 23 points. Attacking the rim at will. People forget that he was once the most promising SG in the league under 26. They could have legit 3 all-star caliber backcourt players rotating.

Yup. He's looked good!

I almost went to bed after the 3rd, but with Draymond tweaking a knee, I stayed up. VERY entertaining game!!! Houston wins with Durants game winner coming AFTER the buzzer. Glad the NBA is back!

Draymond was out but Houston won with its D and PJ Tucker was part of that. His old man game was plenty good tonight. :) Nick Young went off and Houston was still able to win. Luc has a pretty good game himself. It was a fun game I like this vacation. :)

I'm getting tired of so many people acting like the Warriors are just gonna stroll through this regular season and get 70+ wins. The West got more competitive, not less. Every team is gonna give them their best every night and they're known to play sloppy. They'll still win a bunch, but I think this season will be much more competitive and fun to watch. Tonight was a great, competitive game and all the post game is CP3 doesn't fit in Houston and the Warriors are guaranteed champs so why care about the regular season. That's boring. Tonight's game was worth staying up for.

khans2k5 wrote:I'm getting tired of so many people acting like the Warriors are just gonna stroll through this regular season and get 70+ wins. The West got more competitive, not less. Every team is gonna give them their best every night and they're known to play sloppy. They'll still win a bunch, but I think this season will be much more competitive and fun to watch. Tonight was a great, competitive game and all the post game is CP3 doesn't fit in Houston and the Warriors are guaranteed champs so why care about the regular season. That's boring. Tonight's game was worth staying up for.

They didn't get 70+ wins last season either, so I'm not sure who is saying they will this year. They are in a new phase as a team where all they care about is peaking during the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if they win "only" 59 or 60 games.....but they are still the best team in the NBA.

Q12543 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:I'm getting tired of so many people acting like the Warriors are just gonna stroll through this regular season and get 70+ wins. The West got more competitive, not less. Every team is gonna give them their best every night and they're known to play sloppy. They'll still win a bunch, but I think this season will be much more competitive and fun to watch. Tonight was a great, competitive game and all the post game is CP3 doesn't fit in Houston and the Warriors are guaranteed champs so why care about the regular season. That's boring. Tonight's game was worth staying up for.

They didn't get 70+ wins last season either, so I'm not sure who is saying they will this year. They are in a new phase as a team where all they care about is peaking during the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if they win "only" 59 or 60 games.....but they are still the best team in the NBA.

Bill Simmons just handed them 75 wins in his preview podcast and House and Cousin Sal didn't refute it. I also was just bummed by the attitude of the analysts last night (Chuck, Shaq and Charles). It's game 1 of the season. Houston has a big comeback and win the game and the post game is basically the regular season doesn't matter, CP3 doesn't fit and more crap that had nothing to do with the game we just watched. I don't get the attitude of focusing on the playoffs and the championship already when anything can happen between now and then. Just ask the Celtics with Hayward.

I never liked Bill Simmons.....

As for the TNT gang, I actually agree with you. How is having an additional elite ball handler NOT a good thing? Houston was waaaay too dependent on Harden last season to create everything and eventually it became predictable. Guard him at the arc, wall up under the hoop, don't reach into the cookie jar, and give him a ton of space in the mid-range, because you know he'll never take those shots and instead try to force it at the rim.

I remember when folks were wondering how LeBron and Wade could work things out, seeing as they were both ball-dominant wings. Well, how did that work out? Or how about Irving and LeBron? That seemed to work out pretty good too!

Squishypoo wrote:

TheSP wrote:Dude signed a one year contract too, didn't he? Not good no matter how you look at it!!

Think it was a 4 year max deal. You might be thinking of JJ.

Yes, you're right for some reason I was confusing JJ with Hayward. Just imagine forgoing a multiyear contract then getting hit with such a major injury!

I would go a step further and ask when has adding more real talent hurt a team? The narrative that has gotten thrown around that there is only one ball means absolutely nothing in basketball as far as I can tell. Any basketball player spends there whole career in a sport where movement and passing are always part of the game. Even the greatest iso players still swing the ball at some point. Almost always, more talent = more wins. The only example that I think comes even close was that Lakers team that got Payton and Malone but those guys were well past their primes and could have been considered not talented by that point. The media narrative that teams get worse with overlapping skills is nothing more than click bait in reality, CP3 was a great get for Houston if he can still play at an elite level, because in a 5 man team you want to maximize your talent, plain and simple.

thedoper wrote:I would go a step further and ask when has adding more real talent hurt a team? The narrative that has gotten thrown around that there is only one ball means absolutely nothing in basketball as far as I can tell. Any basketball player spends there whole career in a sport where movement and passing are always part of the game. Even the greatest iso players still swing the ball at some point. Almost always, more talent = more wins. The only example that I think comes even close was that Lakers team that got Payton and Malone but those guys were well past their primes and could have been considered not talented by that point. The media narrative that teams get worse with overlapping skills is nothing more than click bait in reality, CP3 was a great get for Houston if he can still play at an elite level, because in a 5 man team you want to maximize your talent, plain and simple.

The Nash, Kobe, Pau, Dwight Lakers team up is the only recent one I can think of and Nash got hurt and Dwight is Dwight.

khans2k5 wrote:

thedoper wrote:I would go a step further and ask when has adding more real talent hurt a team? The narrative that has gotten thrown around that there is only one ball means absolutely nothing in basketball as far as I can tell. Any basketball player spends there whole career in a sport where movement and passing are always part of the game. Even the greatest iso players still swing the ball at some point. Almost always, more talent = more wins. The only example that I think comes even close was that Lakers team that got Payton and Malone but those guys were well past their primes and could have been considered not talented by that point. The media narrative that teams get worse with overlapping skills is nothing more than click bait in reality, CP3 was a great get for Houston if he can still play at an elite level, because in a 5 man team you want to maximize your talent, plain and simple.

The Nash, Kobe, Pau, Dwight Lakers team up is the only recent one I can think of and Nash got hurt and Dwight is Dwight.

I think it is fair to say with that team too that Nash and Dwight were on downward trajectories. Even if you use that example I think the general point is that adding talent is still going to be positive in the overwhelming majority of cases. OKC, Houston, and us will all be significantly better barring injury because we added significant talent.

It's game 1 Houston wins and CP3 hasn't figured out how to play on his new team with a guy that handles the ball a ton and can shoot?!?! Where is my panic button?!? Let's give it some time.