2019-2020 NBA Regular Season Thread

[Truth&Justise]

I think since you're anti-GSW, the angle here to take is to make fun of their front office. There have been a lot of bad drafting and personnel decisions to reach this point where the roster is so barren. It looks like luck did play a prominent role in their success (as it usually does in the NBA).

Also just the cost of having four stars. They built an incredible team with 4 All-Stars, but the cost of doing so meant long-shot opportunities to add additional talent. They lacked money for free agents, no teams would trade with them, and they were stuck drafting at the end of the first round--or paying big money hoping to hit on second round picks, like in 2016 (Patrick McCaw) and 2017 (Jordan Bell). I give them credit for developing a rotation-big in Kevon Looney, but at some point you can't be expected to consistently hit on those low percentage shots. Which is the whole point! It's supposed to be hard for the rich to stay rich, especially when ring-chasing veterans won't sign for cheap with you anymore. GSW got about as good as a team can get under the current rules, and now they will head toward the other end of that cycle. Injuries have just made that ride much quicker than anticipated.

[elvis14]

It's going to be a tough season for the GSW. It's pretty sad because they have been the best show on the court for lots of years a row. Bummed for Steph Curry. He really hasn't gotten it going yet this season and I was looking forward to him hitting his stride and lighting teams up. At the same time, watching them play the Pelicans last week (their only win) all I could think of was how I didn't even know most of their roster. With Klay hurt, KD having gone to the Nets (he will never win another championship, BTW), Levingston retired, Iggy moved on because they couldn't pay him, they have a very limited roster. Even with Curry and Draymond, they still weren't going anywhere this season. I've never been big on Russell and Looney is a solid backup center. I don't even see them making the playoffs. It's going to be weird.

So next year they will have The Splash Brothers back, Draymond and a pretty decent first round pick. Will they have any $$ to sign another good player and some depth? They really need more Duke players as well, with Quinn going over the LameBrons in LA. (Note, I'm kidding about Labron...no I don't root for him on the court but off the court he's actually a good one).

[JasonEvans]

So next year they will have The Splash Brothers back, Draymond and a pretty decent first round pick. Will they have any $$ to sign another good player and some depth?

The Warriors will have the mid level exemption, I think, but aside from that they will be well over the cap next season. They will be paying Steph $43 mil, Klay $35 mil, Russell $28 mil, and Dray $22 mil. That's their entire cap pretty much right there. This is a team with 2 max players and a super max player... they ain't got room to sign any free agents.

-Jason "they need to find another Iggy who can be the 3&D glue guy once they get healthy... I don't think Russell is that" Evans

[Steven43]

So next year they will have The Splash Brothers back, Draymond and a pretty decent first round pick.

Hey, where did D’Angelo Russell go in your projections for Golden State’s 2020-2021 team???

[elvis14]

Hey, where did D’Angelo Russell go in your projections for Golden State’s 2020-2021 team???

Yeah, I screwed that up, realized it when I saw Jason's list of salaried players. Even with Russell they are kinda screwed...

[Mabdul Doobakus]

Hard to believe the Warriors waived Kendrick Nunn at the end of last year.

[Truth&Justise]

Forgot to mention this the other day, but on Tuesday the Mavericks had the wildest example of balanced scoring I've ever seen. In their win over the Nuggets, nine players scored in double figures, but none more than 14 points. Here was the scoring breakdown:

Kleber	14
Hardaway Jr.	14
Doncic	12
Finney-Smith	12
Wright	12
Brunson	11
Curry	10
Porzingis	10
Jackson	10
Powell	4

Talk about sharing the ball! No broader point to make here, just thought that was really neat.

[pfrduke]

The Golden State Warriors started Ky Bowman, Jordan Poole, Glenn Robinson III, Eric Paschall, and Willie Cauley-Stein. That is not an NBA caliber lineup.

[kshepinthehouse]

The Golden State Warriors started Ky Bowman, Jordan Poole, Glenn Robinson III, Eric Paschall, and Willie Cauley-Stein. That is not an NBA caliber lineup.

Might be enough to beat the hornets.

[JNort]

Might be enough to beat the hornets.

Almost was...

[Troublemaker]

The Golden State Warriors started Ky Bowman, Jordan Poole, Glenn Robinson III, Eric Paschall, and Willie Cauley-Stein. That is not an NBA caliber lineup.

That's a damn good college team, though. I know all those names! Hopefully the Warriors pay those guys for using their likenesses.

[Truth&Justise]

The Golden State Warriors started Ky Bowman, Jordan Poole, Glenn Robinson III, Eric Paschall, and Willie Cauley-Stein. That is not an NBA caliber lineup.

Paschall had a good game, scoring 25 on 10/18 shooting.

When he was at Villanova, he wasn't seen as a sure-fire pro like Jalen Brunson or Mikal Bridges. But this goes to show that NBA talent still matters A LOT for winning in college. The 2016 and 2018 Villanova teams, which are often lauded as examples of winning without NBA talent, sure had a heck of a lot of future NBA players:

2016: Josh Hart, Ryan Arcidiacono, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo (and sort of Daniel Ochefu, who played 19 games for the Wizards in 2017)

2018: Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Omari Spellman, Eric Paschall

[JasonEvans]

Atlanta's John Collins (formerly of Wake) has been suspended 25 games by the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy. Still waiting for details on what he did exactly. This is the second high profile drug suspension in a couple weeks after D'Andre Ayton was suspended for 25 games a week or so ago. Wonder if the NBA is cracking down or what.

[JasonEvans]

Atlanta's John Collins (formerly of Wake) has been suspended 25 games by the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy. Still waiting for details on what he did exactly. This is the second high profile drug suspension in a couple weeks after D'Andre Ayton was suspended for 25 games a week or so ago. Wonder if the NBA is cracking down or what.

Just found out... he tested positive for Growth Hormone Releasing Peptide 2. Put another way, this is basically HGH doping to improve muscle mass. Really bad on his part.

[JasonEvans]

Just found out... he tested positive for Growth Hormone Releasing Peptide 2. Put another way, this is basically HGH doping to improve muscle mass. Really bad on his part.

Collins says he took a supplement that had accidentally been tainted with this HGH thing and he is appealing his suspension. Maybe it was a mistake and not even his fault, I have no idea... But I long for the day when any athlete admits they did this intentionally to improve their performance.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Collins says he took a supplement that had accidentally been tainted with this HGH thing and he is appealing his suspension. Maybe it was a mistake and not even his fault, I have no idea... But I long for the day when any athlete admits they did this intentionally to improve their performance.

Would it even be that bad a move? Imagine a player in any sport saying "I wanted a competitive advantage,I want to win games, I obviously didn't think I would get caught. I will continue to do anything I can think of to win games for this franchise and this great city in our quest for a championship."

[TheOldBattleship]

This is the second high profile drug suspension in a couple weeks after D'Andre Ayton was suspended for 25 games a week or so ago. Wonder if the NBA is cracking down or what.

This was my first thought, too. If you were Adam Silver, and you wanted to send a message, this is exactly the level of guy you'd do it with: both Ayton and Collins are pretty big-time younger guys, potentially really good players but not THE big-time younger guys who are faces/future faces of franchises (Doncic/Young, say). Both are pretty well-liked in that generation of player, too, I think. Both are high draft picks, but neither suspension is going to be a huge deal to casual fans. Putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment, if HGH (or other PEDs) is a widespread thing in the NBA and you wanted to send a message that would be heard loud and clear by the players but not really panic fans, it's hard to think of better choices.

[-jk]

This was my first thought, too. If you were Adam Silver, and you wanted to send a message, this is exactly the level of guy you'd do it with: both Ayton and Collins are pretty big-time younger guys, potentially really good players but not THE big-time younger guys who are faces/future faces of franchises (Doncic/Young, say). Both are pretty well-liked in that generation of player, too, I think. Both are high draft picks, but neither suspension is going to be a huge deal to casual fans. Putting on my tinfoil hat for a moment, if HGH (or other PEDs) is a widespread thing in the NBA and you wanted to send a message that would be heard loud and clear by the players but not really panic fans, it's hard to think of better choices.

So, Cleveland St...

-jk

[COYS]

Atlanta's John Collins (formerly of Wake) has been suspended 25 games by the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy. Still waiting for details on what he did exactly. This is the second high profile drug suspension in a couple weeks after D'Andre Ayton was suspended for 25 games a week or so ago. Wonder if the NBA is cracking down or what.

Fellow Hawks fan here. While it's disappointing and probably ruins any chance the Hawks had of sneaking into the playoffs this season, I'm not crying about it too much because I'd just as soon the Hawks get another high draft pick. Trae looks like he could be a superstar. Collins is amazing. There are some intriguing pieces to surround those guys with, but another chance at a high draft pick certainly doesn't hurt as the Hawks move out of the rebuild.

[TheOldBattleship]

Looks like we're starting to get close to a point where there needs to be a serious conversation about the coaches' challenge. Last couple of days there have been some pretty high-profile challenges in big games where it looked pretty clearly like a call should be reversed... and it wasn't.

First up: Doc Rivers challenged what looks to be, shall we say, a significant reaction by Eric Bledsoe to at most fairly minimal contact by Lou Williams. The call was an offensive foul on Williams. It stood after review. Doc was NOT happy about it.

Second call: Jimmy Butler demands a Spoelstra challenge after he was called for a foul on a Cam Johnson layup. Replays sure don't seem to show much contact, but, again, the call was confirmed.

It's REALLY hard to make these kinds of subjective calls in slow motion on replay. We're not in NFL refs and reviewing pass interference calls territory quite yet, but if enough prominent players and coaches have these kinds of moments, I'd not be surprised at all if the NBA ends up canning this particular experiment, even though video replay is something that they're heavily invested in generally.