NBA season to forget? or to be remembered forever??
The 2016-2017 NBA season is becoming one of the most controversial seasons of all time. This off-season we have seen a top 5 superstar join the prior season's runner up Golden State Warriors. Although this isn't the first time a super-team existed in the NBA (i.e. Showtime Lakers, Larry Bird's Celtic, Lebron's Heats), it does feel a bit different when a superstar jumps ship to the team that just knocked him out of the playoffs. So how would this season pan out? Cavs Repeat? Another Warrior's 73 wins season? Warriors sweep through playoffs? No matter what happens, Warriors will be playing with a much greater burden this year compared to prior year. Anything short of a championship would be considered a failure considering the pieces they had to offload to sign Durant and how close they were to winning the championship in the prior season if only Kyrie didn't have ice running in his veins.
In terms of the off-season, which team do you think performed the best/worst in terms of strengthening their team??
My pick:
Best - Celtics
Al Horford fits perfectly with Celtics, a player that can score, pass, and defend. A multi-dimensional player that has the playoff experience to lead the young Celtics. Jaylen Brown was a total surprise during the draft but has since shown his ability to get to the basket during the summer league. Averaging 22 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 3.6 steals in his final three games, not bad for a 3rd pick. He would need to continue working on his shooting but other than that he looks to have the athletic ability, intelligence, and confidence to thrive in the league.
Worst - Bulls
I seriously have no idea what Bulls are trying to do.... In a league where perimeter shooting is becoming more and more important, they have decided to field 3 players that have below average perimeter shooting (Butler, Wade, and Rondo).... Also in a season where they are going to hand the reins to Butler, they decide to sign two other alpha males that love to lead teams???
Nice read. No doubt in my mind this will be a season for the ages, bigger than anything we´ve seen before.
You can see my take on it here:
https://steemit.com/nba/@hugolanz/warriors-come-out-to-play
Feel free to reply...
On the free agency side, I don´t see Horford the way you do:
Has a history with injuries, is on the wrong side of 30, so it´s only a matter of time until that contract looks like a bad one. As of now, it looks good. However, we tend to forget it has to look good through the whole length of it, not only the day the player signs up.
Winners and losers?
Warriors are easy winners. Every team would exchange offseasons with them, and they would exchange theirs with no one.
Pelicans, Lakers an Rockets, on the other hand... at least the Horford contract looks good now. Hill, Mozgov, Deng, Anderson, Gordon... they all look like gross overpayments now, and it will only get worst.
p.s. love your post!
Go cleveland, back to back.
I disagree with your Bulls view. I can see what they're doing. Some intense egos have to be be checked at the door, but if it works they can get a good seed for another possible Cavs trample. The Kings, on the other hand only hedged against Cousins leaving, and now that's all but certain. They lose the off-season so far...again.
Yeh agree with kings, i was more looking at legitimate teams that went downhill. The Kings have been in limbo since Webber era ended, one of the worst (if not the worst) organisation in the league. Divac has no clue on how to run a team and the coaching changes have destroyed what could have been a superstar in Cousins. Now Cousins has become a total prick and is practically uncoachable except if they hire coaches like Pop, Carlisle, Thib, Phil or Riley.
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