2015 NBA Offseason + Draft

ButtersSuki

Smith is a clown, so much so I rarely comment on his antics, but that was just toooooooo good to pass on.

Seriously, if you haven't watched it, do for the laugh!

That_Guy

Did I just watch a bad WWE promo?

ButtersSuki

That_Guy wrote: »

Did I just watch a bad WWE promo?

There is no such thing as a bad WWE Promo........






JOKE!

For Forks Sake

Smith is an utter asshat. That was like one of those scripted UFC pre-fight conference statements.

Paully D

Lamar Odom is in a bad way it seems. Unfortunately it's something I'm sure we all seen coming the way had been over the last couple of years:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34524083

Kobe left the Lakers game last night to go to the hospital.

Hopefully he pulls through.

padraig_f

Paully D wrote: »

Lamar Odom is in a bad way it seems. Unfortunately it's something I'm sure we all seen coming the way had been over the last couple of years:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34524083

Kobe left the Lakers game last night to go to the hospital.

Hopefully he pulls through.

Very sad....echo your thoughts in hoping he pulls through, although it doesn't sound great right now.

GoldFour4

Such a sad story about Odom. He was a great player not so long ago and just had such an awful fall from grace.

Itssoeasy

Just reading about Lamar odom and they went through a timeline of his life and the things that really bugged me were some of his issues being used to produce a show for that waste of oxygen family known as the Kardashians.

Anyway sorry hope he pulls through.

NufcNavan

The Kardashians should be sterilised. Horrible 'family'.

Get well soon Lamar.

padraig_f

Nice one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlo2bG5vBs

PizzamanIRL

I hate how Irish media are only reporting on the story because he's associated with those gobshiite Kardashians. If he had a "no name" wife, they wouldn't give a crap.

nerd69

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

I hate how Irish media are only reporting on the story because he's associated with those gobshiite Kardashians. If he had a "no name" wife, they wouldn't give a crap.

thats to be expected in fairness the irish basketball scene is small if there was a chinese badminton player in the same situation you wouldn't here anything about it either

ButtersSuki

As I frequently said to anyone who brings up those fame whores to me, the ONLY Kardashian news I'm interested in is the following:


"Entire Kardashian family killed in road accident."

nerd69

ButtersSuki wrote: »

As I frequently said to anyone who brings up those fame whores to me, the ONLY Kardashian news I'm interested in is the following:


"Entire Kardashian family killed in road accident."

Not a fan of them at all but that's a pretty ****ty thing to say about anyone to be honest

Paully D

I'm no fan of some members of the family myself, but I think the Kardashian's may be getting a bit of an unfair rap with regards to Lamar.

Many people thing that Khloe was actually quite good for him. Alvin Gentry was reportedly close with him and said the following - “I thought, personally, I thought Khloe was great for him,” Gentry said. “I thought she really loved him and wanted to protect him and take care of him. But on his side, he didn’t know how to handle that. He never had anybody who was just there to protect him and didn’t want anything. All she wanted from him — I felt like, she just wanted Lamar to love her back. It is a sad situation.” It does seem to be a common theme regarding their marriage. In the interest of fairness it's probably also worth pointing out that the reason their marriage ultimately broke down was due to Lamar's constant cheating.

Khloe also has reportedly paid to fly Odom's father, 2 kids and his ex-wife out to be by his side. Now I know the money is a drop in the ocean to her and considering the circumstances it was the right thing to do, but she still didn't have to do it.

Look, there's no doubt that they're not perfect. Lamar was publically unhappy with some aspects of their reality shows (such as the recording of phone calls to be shown on the show that he wanted to remain private) and rightly so, but personally I feel there's so many things that have gone on in Odom's life (his father took heroin heavily and was never there for him, his mother died when he was only 12, the death of his daughter who was 6 and a half months old at the time, 2 of his closest friends died during the summer) that may have lead to this breaking point rather than it being all the Kardashian's fault.

For Forks Sake

ButtersSuki wrote: »

As I frequently said to anyone who brings up those fame whores to me, the ONLY Kardashian news I'm interested in is the following:


"Entire Kardashian family killed in road accident."

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I would support the re-introduction of medieval witch trials specifically for them .

NufcNavan

The East is funny. I want to believe teams got better just from a competition stand point, but I'm not sure I really believe it.

The Wiz have a great backcourt, but lost Pierce and that swagger really meant something to them. Nene is just about as done as West was for us and Gortat regressed last year. Beal has struggled with injuries pretty consistently throughout his career.

The Bulls....well on paper this team should be able to do something, but Rose just seems to find a new way to injure himself every season. Noah has put a ton of mileage on his body and was worse than Hibbert last year in a lot of ways IMHO. Pau was great and Butler is really good too, but their bench is still really thin IMO.

Atlanta....I guess we'll see but anyone really want to bet on this team winning 60 games again? 50 yeah, but I just don't see 60 in the cards.

Miami....gotta be honest really don't get this one. They weren't that great even before Bosh went out last year. Yeah they added Dragic, but now suddenly this is the year Wade is going to find his health again? I just don't see it. People talk about them as a top 3 team in the East potentially and to me that makes no sense.

Pacers...the questions about my team are all over the place, but gotta be honest I don't feel as bad about them when I start looking at the rest of the conference.

Toronto...Meh, they are who they are, they'll win between 42 and 48 games and lose in the first round to whoever they play.

Milwaukee...I guess they could be a big surprise this year, but Greg Monroe seems like a guy who was pretty polarizing with Detroit anyway. I like Jabari a lot, but coming off an ACL is tough for the first year.

Boston....did zero to improve their perimeter scoring. I think they regress this year big time.

Detroit...I think they're better than Boston

ButtersSuki

nerd69 wrote: »

Not a fan of them at all but that's a pretty ****ty thing to say about anyone to be honest

I didn't mean it literally. Jeez, it's called sarcasm. Try it sometime.

I said it to empahsise how little I care anbout their vacuous faem-whoring famous for being famous (and not actually doing or creating anything) lives.

delph09

NufcNavan wrote: »

The East is funny. I want to believe teams got better just from a competition stand point, but I'm not sure I really believe it.

The Wiz have a great backcourt, but lost Pierce and that swagger really meant something to them. Nene is just about as done as West was for us and Gortat regressed last year. Beal has struggled with injuries pretty consistently throughout his career.

The Bulls....well on paper this team should be able to do something, but Rose just seems to find a new way to injure himself every season. Noah has put a ton of mileage on his body and was worse than Hibbert last year in a lot of ways IMHO. Pau was great and Butler is really good too, but their bench is still really thin IMO.

Atlanta....I guess we'll see but anyone really want to bet on this team winning 60 games again? 50 yeah, but I just don't see 60 in the cards.

Miami....gotta be honest really don't get this one. They weren't that great even before Bosh went out last year. Yeah they added Dragic, but now suddenly this is the year Wade is going to find his health again? I just don't see it. People talk about them as a top 3 team in the East potentially and to me that makes no sense.

Pacers...the questions about my team are all over the place, but gotta be honest I don't feel as bad about them when I start looking at the rest of the conference.

Toronto...Meh, they are who they are, they'll win between 42 and 48 games and lose in the first round to whoever they play.

Milwaukee...I guess they could be a big surprise this year, but Greg Monroe seems like a guy who was pretty polarizing with Detroit anyway. I like Jabari a lot, but coming off an ACL is tough for the first year.

Boston....did zero to improve their perimeter scoring. I think they regress this year big time.

Detroit...I think they're better than Boston

I don't agree, I think atlanta is still a good team, they have good team work and good defense, if they get 60 wins again, I will not shock for this, but when they go to the playoff, they will show their shortcoming again, they don't have super star like curry, harden or james.

NufcNavan

delph09 wrote: »

I don't agree, I think atlanta is still a good team, they have good team work and good defense, if they get 60 wins again, I will not shock for this, but when they go to the playoff, they will show their shortcoming again, they don't have super star like curry, harden or james.

Atlanta's problem is not that they don't have a superstar, it's that their style of play is generally suited to regular season play. Teams clamp down on shooters in the playoffs and them tidy plays and screens that get Kyle Korver open looks don't come off as well in the post season.

I think you're underestimating how hard it is to win 60+ games too. Highly unlikely that they will do it back to back.

padraig_f

Some Bulls thoughts heading into the season...

I watched very little of the pre-season, but watched Rose's debut against the Mavs the other night. He looks good, and I think the Hoiberg offense is going to suit him. You're watching the offense without him, and it's not that compelling, but when Rose is on the floor, it's like...'yeah, now I get it'.

Creating in transition, and semi-transition, it's playing to his strengths. It's not super-fast, like 7-seconds-or-less, but it's just pushing it before the defense has a chance to set. It looks a good bit more fun to watch as well. It reminds me of playing basketball as a kid...when you're playing with your friends, you're not walking it up and running set-plays, you're getting out and running, and improvising, and I think I'll just like watching it more for that reason.

The starting lineup will be interesting to see on Tuesday night. I think it's going to be:

Rose, Butler, Snell, Mirotic, Gasol.

I feel bad for Noah being moved to the bench after being the soul of the team for several years. The Noah-Gasol starting front-court pairing had to be broken up though, it wasn't working, and one of them had to go to the bench. For me, I'd have started Noah, because I think there's enough offense in the starting lineup, and I think Noah's defense would've balanced it a bit better. Then you could have Gasol as the primary scorer for the 2nd unit.

The plus side is the 2nd unit looks very strong with Noah & Gibson, and Noah looks a bit better after the break, when he was clearly hampered last season.

Exciting also to see Mirotic as a starter. I think he can be a game-changer with his range of skills, assuming he irons out some of the small things last year (too many pump-fakes Niko!).

Overall I think things will take some time to gel fully, it's a pretty different offense to before, and will take time for players to get fully in tune with it, and in sync with each other. It will also probably take the coaching staff a bit of time to best utilise the players. You have to guess the defense will probably take something of a step back.

I haven't seen much of the rookie Bobby Portis, but people have been raving about him in the pre-season. What I've heard people say is 'you have to find minutes for him in this team', which considering he's a front-court player, and the front court already includes Gasol, Mirotic, Noah & Gibson, is pretty high praise.

Anyway an interesting season ahead for the Bulls, and it will get off to a fast start against the Cavs on Tuesday night.

limerickfc

I hope okc trade kanter as soon as possible, he drives my blood pressure through the roof

For Forks Sake

R.I.P Flip Saunders.

http://teamstre.am/1LPrqxS

I was only reading about his illness earlier on, he'd been in hospital for the last six months but reportedly had a good prognosis.

NufcNavan

Lads, any of yous have experience with NBA league pass?

Considering getting the team pass for the Pacers as any non Pacer games that I'd watch are usually on TV anyway. 97 quid for the year is good value too.

padraig_f

NufcNavan wrote: »

Lads, any of yous have experience with NBA league pass?

Considering getting the team pass for the Pacers as any non Pacer games that I'd watch are usually on TV anyway. 97 quid for the year is good value too.

I've got it the last few seasons....I got it this year through Hola unblocker and got 30 or 40 quid off the Irish price. I got the all-teams package for about the same price as the single-team price in Ireland. I considered the single-team, but IIRC playoffs weren't even included.

It's pretty good. I watch most games the following day. Ads are cut out then, and then I tend to also skip through free-throws, which you can fairly easily to with the 10-second skip button.

NufcNavan

padraig_f wrote: »

I've got it the last few seasons....I got it this year through Hola unblocker and got 30 or 40 quid off the Irish price. I got the all-teams package for about the same price as the single-team price in Ireland. I considered the single-team, but IIRC playoffs weren't even included.

It's pretty good. I watch most games the following day. Ads are cut out then, and then I tend to also skip through free-throws, which you can fairly easily to with the 10-second skip button.

So it's cheaper if you use a US ip address?

Edit: Just checked, team pass is a whole 11 quid dearer on a US address on Hola!

padraig_f

NufcNavan wrote: »

So it's cheaper if you use a US ip address?

Edit: Just checked, team pass is a whole 11 quid dearer on a US address on Hola!

yeah, try a few different ones. I think Argentina was good. Ended up signing up from Ghana myself:

Signed up for NBA league pass with the Bulls pre-season starting tonight. €180 looked a bit pricey, so researched the VPN option (signing up from a different part of the world). Best I saw was Ghana, 130 USD for the same package, or €115.

NufcNavan

padraig_f wrote: »

yeah, try a few different ones. I think Argentina was good. Ended up signing up from Ghana myself:

Cheers. Aye Argentina is about 120 for the league pass and over 60 quid for the team pass. Some difference! Cheers.

Paully D

padraig_f wrote: »

Some Bulls thoughts heading into the season...

Great post Padraig.

Very interested to see how Noah handles coming off the bench. He's in a contract year too so I can't imagine he'll be at all pleased. I don't think he'll cause any trouble as he seems to be a good leader, but nonetheless a good test for Hoiberg in how he deals with it inside the locker room.

NufcNavan

Paully D wrote: »

Great post Padraig.

Very interested to see how Noah handles coming off the bench. He's in a contract year too so I can't imagine he'll be at all pleased. I don't think he'll cause any trouble as he seems to be a good leader, but nonetheless a good test for Hoiberg in how he deals with it inside the locker room.

Based on how he played towards the end of last year and in the playoffs, he can't complain about being benched.