2019-2020 NBA Season Thread Basketball • Page 114

I do get the side of people who like watching specific players and as a result become attached to other teams though

 

Yup vastly improved since AP haha

 

Me? Never!

 

Oh I do to ! LT is the reason why I still follow the Chargers, but I'm obviously attached to this current team because of certain players. I've been accustomed to liking the Trail Blazers because of Lillard.

 

Tell me your thoughts on Dak...

Laughs menacingly @broken22 @Fucking Dustin

 

Who ? Me ? Lol

 

I’m still on record as Lakers will miss the playoffs, can’t wait to be derided for a full season or become the certified Oracle I always believed I was.

 

The NFL thread in general haha

 

I'm beginning to think they make it

Not in the top 5 west teams though or anything like that

 

Clippers, Blazers, Jazz, Nuggets, Spurs, Rockets, Warriors seem like an easy top 7. And with the Thunder out the Lakers are tempting to include. But y’all keep forgetting about THE SACRAMENTO KINGS BABY

 

Oh yes, it has ha.

 

Okay, back to basketball

 

I'm not sold on the Lakers yet, at most I think they are a fringe 8 seed imo.

 

Idk how you can shoehorn the Warriors into the playoffs with them riding only Steph and DLo most of the year yet not include the Lakers when they’ll be riding LeBron and AD lol. Lakers will be fine

 

I still think the Klay/KD-less Warriors are a playoff lock. Idk anything beyond that but Curry and Kerr can get them in the playoffs no problem

 

^ Reasonable take. The Warriors' bench was thin before losing Iggy. Draymond will be even further removed from being good. They'll be a threat in the playoffs because Klay, Dlo, Steph and Dray will be interesting but they're gonna be a low seed.

 

I don't think anybody thinks 100% of a fanbase sucks. I'm a diehard Yankee fan of 27 years and routinely think my fanbase has the highest percentage of worst people lol

 

I just have to disagree (obviously) that the Lakers won't make the playoffs. That just seems like a bizarre take to me. They literally have 2 top 5 players (depending on how you feel about them) on their team.

 

The Warriors and the Lakers are both playoff teams barring injuries to LeBron/AD/Steph/Draymond

 

I just still can't bring myself to think it's as simple as great player + great player = great team and I don't think the Lakers current roster construction is gonna do them many favors in the West, and that there's gonna be days where star players naturally have to sit out (which is perfectly fine) and it can very well all work against their playoff chances

But as of right now I have em as an 8 seed

 

Lakers not making the playoffs hinges on Pelicans or Mavericks making huge leaps. I could maybe see the Pelicans getting there if Zion is great year one, but I really don’t see either of those teams being better than the Lakers. Prediction:

Clippers
Nuggets
Jazz
Blazers
Rockets
Warriors
Lakers
Spurs

 

The argument is that both of those top 5 players couldn’t lead a team to the playoffs last year, those two are both likely to miss some time, and outside of those two the roster is a pretty big mess in terms of talent and fit.

The counter argument to that is that they should still have enough and with the Thunder punting the other options are the Kings, Mavs, and T Wolves which have some massive problems as well, and that’s an understatement. It’s a good counter argument, but I’m sticking with my pre Paul George trade prediction that they can’t figure it out for a while and by then it’s too late in the stacked West.

 

Kings are the team I think could potentially leapfrog the Lakers but idk

 

Way too early but this is where I have the West right now at this very second:

1. Blazers
2. Rockets
3. Clippers
4. Jazz
5. Warriors
6. Spurs
7. Nuggets
8. Lakers
9. Kings
10. Pelicans
11. Grizzlies
12. Mavericks
13. Timberwolves
14. Thunder
15. Suns

 

I thought about that too but ultimately I saw Pels and Mavs leapfrogging the Kings lol