The Golden State Warriors are the best team in the NBA and they added a few more elites players that are looking for a ring.
The balance of power was already in the Western Conference’s favor, but they tipped even more in their favor this offseason.
LeBron James will play his first season in the West after signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Can LeBron push the Los Angeles Lakers to 49 wins?
Here are our over/under season wins total picks for the NBA’s Western Conference.
The 2018 NBA Trade Deadline really kicked off when the Los Angeles Clippers traded superstar power forward Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons late in the night. The Clippers got a king’s random in return. Many thought DeAndre Jordan would be next to leave the Clippers, but he stayed put.
Other big trades that happened in-between the Griffin deal and today were Nikola Mirotic going to New Orleans for a mess of veteran and picks. I also think Charlotte’s acquisition of center Willy Hernangomez could be huge. He’s a talented guy, but was stuck behind some talented bigs on the Knicks.
Today’s trades didn’t disappoint as much as previous years’ trade deadlines. There were a couple really nice trades and a ton of depth trades.
The NBA regular season kicks off tomorrow. The Celtics are at Cleveland and the Rockets travel to the defending NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors. Both are must-watch games for any NBA fan.
Picking regular season over/under prop bets in the NBA’s Western Conference takes some skill this season. You have unbelievably stacked teams like the Warriors, Thunder and Rockets, but you have to factor in the chances teams will rest their stars in a few games this season. A team that has already ‘been there, done that’ like the Warriors and Spurs, will probably rest their guys. The Thunder who legitimately look like they are having fun this preseason, have something to prove and may not rest as many stars.
Can rookie Lonzo Ball push the Los Angeles Lakers to 34 wins?
Here are our over/under season wins total picks for the NBA’s Western Conference.
As a fan of the Indiana Pacers, I knew this day was coming, but I wasn’t ready.
Paul George made it official, he wants out of Indianapolis. He wants to head back home to Southern California and play for the Los Angeles Lakers. Pacers new general manager Kevin Pritchard has a huge issue on his mind. Do they let him play next season, hope he makes the All-NBA team, so they could offer him much more money than any other team, or do they trade him now for some picks and/or another established star?
In 2010, Pritchard lost his job in Portland for a few dumb moves (and drafting Greg Oden over Kevin Durant). I’m sure he assumed a day when he needs to figure out the George problem would come, but probably didn’t think the news of George wanting out of town would leak before the 2017 NBA Draft.
Just like we did for the NFL Draft, we are here to release our 2017 NBA Mock Draft.
A lot can change before June 22nd. Many expect the Celtics and Lakers to get plenty of calls until then. The biggest possible trade that could happen could be the Pacers trading Paul George to the Celtics for a large package of prospects and the #1 overall pick. Will it happen? I’d say there’s only about a 20% chance right now.
Here is the ‘America’s White Boy’ 2017 NBA Mock Draft.
1. Boston Celtics – Markelle Fultz – PG – Washington Huskies – Fultz is the consensus best player in the draft. Even though Washington was a bad team last year, it should bring up too many red flags. In baseball, they call a prospect that can do everything a ‘five-tool player’…and Fultz is the equivalent in basketball. He has hops, he can shoot, he is very good defensively and has the size for his position. It will be interesting to see how he will play with Isaiah Thomas, but it can be done. This pick is very desirable, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Boston gets a mother lode for it if they trade it.
This year’s field for Rookie of the Year is wide-open in the NBA after #1 overall pick Ben Simmons suffered a season-threatening foot injury this preseason.
In order to be a true Rookie of the Year candidate, you need to be able to accumulate the kind of ‘sexy’ stats like points and rebounds. It also helps if your team improves by double-digit wins.
I don’t think defense-first players can truly win a rookie award, since voters are mostly just looking at the ‘back of the basketball card’ stats.
Will one of the Philadelphia Sixers win the Rookie of the Year award with Ben Simmons due to miss an extended amount of time?
The NBA regular season kicks off at the end of the month…and I can’t wait.
The offseason seemed to be gone in a blink of an eye. A ton of money was thrown around and some players are a few pounds of cash heavier.
NBA owners will want another ‘amnesty clause’ in the next CBA to bail themselves out from some of these deals. There are some guys who should have been wearing ski masks when signing their new deals.
The Golden State Warriors won the Western Conference last season and are early favorites to repeat this season. Any sleepers out there worth a bet?
We knew this NBA offseason would have a lot of buzz since many top players would hit free agency on July 1st and the fact that the salary cap will hit a historic high of $94.143 million for the 2016-17 season.
Even though we expected a lot of money to be thrown around, it just didn’t really sink in until we saw the quality of players getting such huge contracts.
This list isn’t an indictment on the players getting literally a ton of cash, but an indictment on the owners spending frivolously. I guarantee their actions during the first few days of the 2016 NBA offseason will make them cry poor when this labor agreement expires. I have a feeling they may need another amnesty clause if spending continues this recklessly.
I’ve been an Indiana Pacers fan as long as I can remember. It was great during the Reggie Miller years, but after the ‘Malice at the Palace’, it became really difficult. Not only is your favorite team look at as ‘thugs’, but the years after it was just a mess.
After years of drafting ‘high character’ guys and signing ‘safe’ players, things finally turned around for the Pacers when they were lucky enough to draft Roy Hibbert, Paul George and Lance Stephenson. Things didn’t work out with Lance in the long-term, but there was hope for George and Hibbert to be a part of the team for a long time.
Well, everything went bad in a hurry.
The Los Angeles Lakers were an embarrassment last season. After major injuries to Julius Randle and Kobe Bryant, the roster was full of D-League talent and aging veterans. If you pay close attention to sports betting odds, the current outlook for next season doesn’t look great either.
The Lakers are not used to being in this position. They always just restock instead of doing a long-term rebuild. Kobe doesn’t have much time left, so he is certainly in management’s ear in hopes of winning one more title to tie Michael Jordan’s ring count.
They are now trying to free up enough cap space to make a run at some of this offseason’s top free agents. They gained $9 million more by declining Jordan Hill’s team option.
Which free agents are the Lakers targeting this Summer?
The 2015 NBA Draft has been hyped as a two-man draft with the top prizes being Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke’s Jahlil Okafor. I believe both big men will go onto have nice NBA careers, but this draft is deeper than most people think.
I believe Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell and Duke’s Justise Winslow could both be future NBA All-Stars…but just like any other player, they need to be in the right situation to develop.
Don’t worry international basketball fans, there’s plenty of overseas talent in this year’s draft. You have Croatian Mario Hezonja and Latvian Kristaps Prozingis as the top talents from Europe. Also, there’s an American high schooler Emmanuel Mudiay who went to China in lieu of going to college.
Here’s our early 2015 NBA mock draft for the NBA lottery selection.
Josh Smith finally ‘perimeter shot’ his way out of Detroit. The Pistons decided to cut him and if he clears waivers (and he will), they will be on the hook for the remainder of his contract…a hefty $26 million.
Head coach and team president Stan Van Gundy put his foot down with this move. Smith could get away with poorly shooting long jumpers when his head coach wasn’t involved with personnel. Detroit has a long way to go to rebuild. Dumping Smith was a smart, long-term decision for the franchise.
Even though Josh Smith is one of the worst players in the NBA, teams are lining up to sign him once he clears waivers.
Title contenders will be at the top of the list, since he will most likely sign a one-year deal and then hit free agency this offseason.
Which NBA team will land Josh Smith?