2024 NBA Season

[Harkorede]

I guess I can say Kevin Durant practically understands that to build a championship team now is not about trying to buy one outrightly and more about building around perhaps a few, but core franchise players and looking back at last few trades and how much is left of his career, he’ll never be able to find the needed chemistry if he keeps getting traded at every deadline and only plays about 30-40% with supposedly co-championships worthy players that are being trade for as well.

He learn it the hard way when he did get out of the Warriors move to the Nets and then he thought that they have build a good and championship caliber team with Kyrie and then James Harden. However, they don't have the a solid team, with Claxton still very raw talent that time and the Joe Harris, on and off with injuries.

So had matured already and we all know that he is not getting any younger that another trade might take him 3-4 years of rebuilding a championship team. It's a good mentality for him to stick around with the Suns and him and Booker trying to bring the best of each other.

And the fact they Warriors have won championships even after he left would have taught him that while everyone have seen what the Phoenix Suns were a few seasons ago even with Mikael Bridges and Cam Johnson being their very next 2 go to guys, and now that they have what seemed like just a lot whatifs and buts while teams that look the best to win the championship really are those building their chemistry over seasons and not just overnight.

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[dwyane36]

So they will be left with a couple of good players and it will take a lot of time to see either Mitchell or Lavine (whichever they got), to blend with the team and this might cost them the playoff.

The Lakers have been far too mediocre this regular season. So they will probably have very little chance of any success in the playoffs, even if they get there. Honestly, I'm not sure they need Mitchell because he's unlikely to make much of an impact on the Lakers' results. And trading players like Russell, Reaves, and Rui doesn't sound like a good idea for the Lakers.

[Iranus]

Yes, this is one of the possibilities...

Well I believe... a player that the Lakers need to have to be more consistent and improve the team's performance is a high quality PG/SG.
LAL has 2 allstar players in different positions, for example, LeBron James (SG/SF/PF) and AD (PF/C), a type of player that could fit into LAL would be a high quality PG/SG, This way, LJ could play as SF or PF and help with the team's rotation by playing in other positions.
D'Angelo Russell is a good player, but in my opinion I believe he didn't fit in very well with the Lakers as expected (of course that's my opinion).

Yes, I also think that he is not a bad player but he didn't fit in well with the team. And I think other teams might be interested in him even after him not being very well in his current team. And that is the reason I think his team might push to trade him, and it might work out well for both parties included. For me it makes sense.

I am not sure what Lakers could offer to get Mitchell, or Lavine to be fair but at least Lavine is not doing anything so he could be traded for not much in order for Bulls to potentially tank, whereas it doesn't make sense at all for Mitchell to leave, Cavs are doing fine.

It makes sense because Mitchell has already made it clear he won't resign with the Cavs, so it's a trade him or lose him scenario.

An interesting statement from Kevin Durant saying he doesn't want to be traded.  I guess he's been doing a lot of complaining lately and wanted to make it clear that he wants to be on the Suns now that trade rumors are starting to heat up and even mock trades happening online.  There's an article about it I've pasted below.  I don't think the Suns will trade KD unless it's for AD from the Lakers which won't happen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/kevin-durant-i-don-t-want-to-get-traded/ar-AA1mLjnu

when the player has expressed the intention of staying in the team it will be better for the team to keep him in the team. Because probably now the player feels good in the team and if they bring in a new player he won't be able to do as well as him. And it is always a risk. Now if they get a player that is really good like AD, then it makes sense as you said but otherwise, I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to be honest.

I believe it will be better if they keep him. If they take an initiative to actually trade him it might not be the best decision because the player clearly doesn't wanna leave.

[Questat]

Los Angeles Lakers won the match, but Darko Rajokovic's statements after the game left their mark on the night: "This is nonsense. How does Scottie Barnes only foul twice? If they won't let us win, let them tell us not to go on the field. "What happened today was a disgrace," he said.
 While the Lakers went to the foul line 36 times, Toronto went to the foul line 13 times. It was an interesting and competitive match. Although Toronto was leading 51-53 at the half, they lost the match 132-131.
Thus, the Lakers got their second win in a row.
We have to give credit to Anthony Davis, who scored 41 points and had a double-double with 11 rebounds in the match.

The coach is right with what he was complaining about.
Many calls in the game, especially in the 4th, have been very questionable.

23 : 2 free throws is just crazy. They also called so many strange fouls on Toronto, like offensive fouls and so on, but almost nothing versus the Lakers.
That Toronto still managed to stay in the game was almost a miracle.  

That's a huge disparity, I think I'm late with the news as I just found out about this issue today. I saw the video on tiktok about the Raptors coach complaining which some agrees on him, while some dislike his statement. But I guess that's how the NBA works, it's nothing new IMO.

The NBA clearly has a ref problem. So many games where the refs decide who is winning. All those ejections as well where the refs have their feelings hurt and therefor kick out the player, it's not funny anymore.

Honestly, If we believe that NBA is rigged it shouldn't be the ref that should be blamed, it's a league in overall. There are numerous conpiracy theory we can see online, and time and time again, this kind of scenario will just come out, but still NBA remains his reputation intact, at least for majority of the fans.


I also read some comment that the coach was acting like a sports bettor who lost his bet.

[danherbias07]

The Golden State Warriors cannot even get close against the New Orleans Pelicans today. It sucks to watch these guys playing like that on their own turf. Steve Kerr tried all the rotations that he could but nothing was working out. Against a big team like the Pelicans, they are like kids being played at. Valanciunas literally don't jump anymore to put the ball in one or two times underneath the rim. Plus, the defense of the Pelicans against their splash brothers is against high-level defensive players who are way bigger than them. Herb Jones and Trey Murphy just locked both of them and they didn't let them score higher than 15 points.
Now the Warriors are on the 12th spot in the Western Conference. I am having doubts they can enter the playoffs, although it is still early to say.

How about the Boston Celtics coming from behind against the Minnesota Timberwolves? They played perfectly in the 4th quarter and had the lead but Twolves Antman tied the game so the game went to overtime. But there they showed how strong they are and Tatum ended up with 45 points while Brown had 35 points. Damn, these two offensive monsters.

[ajanwalker]

Utah managed to beat the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, such as Denver, on its own field, with a score of 124-111.
Utah is in great form right now and will play 5 more matches at home. If they can make a good series, they will move up the ranks.
Toronto, which was in Los Angeles for two games, lost to the Clippers this time with a score of 126-120.
Now Toronto's new address will be the strong Utah away game. Most likely, they will leave Utah with a loss and will have completed the six-game away series with two wins and four losses.

[Baofeng]

Utah managed to beat the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, such as Denver, on its own field, with a score of 124-111.
Utah is in great form right now and will play 5 more matches at home. If they can make a good series, they will move up the ranks.
Toronto, which was in Los Angeles for two games, lost to the Clippers this time with a score of 126-120.
Now Toronto's new address will be the strong Utah away game. Most likely, they will leave Utah with a loss and will have completed the six-game away series with two wins and four losses.

That's unpredictability with NBA right now, when we think that teams are going to win easily, like in the Mavs game and now Denver losing against a low team, it's very hard to see who's going to win just by looking at the records.

So most of the times, it's really hard as well to put a pre-game bet, as you really don't know who's going to play or what is the feel of the current team specially the favorites. It's so unpredictable that we have like 3 OT games if I'm not mistaken last night.

[carlisle1]

Utah managed to beat the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, such as Denver, on its own field, with a score of 124-111.
Utah is in great form right now and will play 5 more matches at home. If they can make a good series, they will move up the ranks.
Toronto, which was in Los Angeles for two games, lost to the Clippers this time with a score of 126-120.
Now Toronto's new address will be the strong Utah away game. Most likely, they will leave Utah with a loss and will have completed the six-game away series with two wins and four losses.

Good shooting and teamwork for Utah, though we know that Denver still on the good spot they just let this game and allow the home team to win
the game, it's tough to compete with the squad who most of the shots that taken went in.

And aside from that the assist and that connections from the Jazz players they really outplay the Nuggets, though there's a time where Nuggets
close the gap in a single digit but again Jazz takeover again and run with usual plays.

2 loses in LA and will face the hot Jazz might be possible to have that same outcome, but still going to depend on how they will show up during the game.

[owengtam09]

With the trade deadline less than a month away now the talk is starting to heat up. I’m seeing a lot of reports that the Lakers have started discussions with the Cavaliers about trading for Donovan Mitchell. It seems like we’re likely to see Mitchell or Zach LaVine in a Lakers uniform in a few weeks.

That would be great for the Los Angeles Lakers but that would be if the players would want to be traded, on their team if there are certainly other options let's just wait for the final judgment, as for sure Zach LaVine will be a great asset for the Lakers LaVine will be a great defender and with his offense it is a pretty natural good pass for Anthony Davis passing to LaVine and Donovan Mitchell is another great player that would be a good Steal for them but for sure is a good back-up player for the team, he could be a tandem to Austin Reeves.

Yeah, doesn't make sense for him to ask for a trade again and then it will take years to build his chemistry with a new team. So what if the new team that he will go turns out to be as bad? He had Booker and Beal to him him out, perhaps just a few tweaks in the middle to help Nurkic.

They need a couple of years to build that chemistry and trust the process. So hopefully there will be no trade for Durant and see how far him and Booker can bring the Suns. And obviously it will be the finals.

For sure the Phoenix Suns will not trade Kevin Durant and for sure it would be really weird if he gets traded to a newer team you are right it doesn't make sense at all, it will become another building for that team to have Kevin Durant for sure they will need to establish their position on the team and remade their gameplay, that will be a risk to put such effort but for sure if that would be Detroit Pistons maybe and hope for the best that Kevin Durant will get used too in the team as early as he was traded,

[Reid]

Utah managed to beat the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, such as Denver, on its own field, with a score of 124-111.
Utah is in great form right now and will play 5 more matches at home. If they can make a good series, they will move up the ranks.
Toronto, which was in Los Angeles for two games, lost to the Clippers this time with a score of 126-120.
Now Toronto's new address will be the strong Utah away game. Most likely, they will leave Utah with a loss and will have completed the six-game away series with two wins and four losses.

Yes, they are a healthy team now and that's the reason behind the winning streak that they achieved. I like the way Collin Sexton is playing, every time he is given minutes, he doesn't waste them. On his last 5 games he had been scoring in double digits and fans can really feel his presence in the game. I guess the injury of Clarkson did good for him to gain back his confidence after being injured.
Now that the whole roster is healthy they are back on winning games once again. This is the Utah Jazz that we saw at the start of last season. They are strong, they are young, and they are growing. And with Markkanen at Clarkson, their offense got more stronger with so many options to score for them. I have been underestimating them because I bet for the Nuggets. I guess it's time to change the view about this young team.

[Finestream]

For sure the Phoenix Suns will not trade Kevin Durant and for sure it would be really weird if he gets traded to a newer team you are right it doesn't make sense at all, it will become another building for that team to have Kevin Durant for sure they will need to establish their position on the team and remade their gameplay, that will be a risk to put such effort but for sure if that would be Detroit Pistons maybe and hope for the best that Kevin Durant will get used too in the team as early as he was traded,

He should stop thinking of getting traded again as that would not help his legacy. It's very obvious that he is not as great as Lebron who can easily bring his team to the championship during his prime. Durant is a good scorer though, but as we can see, Booker's performance have decline, and probably that's the reason why they are losing on their recent games.

It's still early, they can still figure out to win. And no excuses for them as they are fully healthy, so they have to play like they used to.

I think what's missing here is the likes of Ayton which Nurkic where not able to provide.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Utah managed to beat the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, such as Denver, on its own field, with a score of 124-111.
Utah is in great form right now and will play 5 more matches at home. If they can make a good series, they will move up the ranks.
Toronto, which was in Los Angeles for two games, lost to the Clippers this time with a score of 126-120.
Now Toronto's new address will be the strong Utah away game. Most likely, they will leave Utah with a loss and will have completed the six-game away series with two wins and four losses.

That's unpredictability with NBA right now, when we think that teams are going to win easily, like in the Mavs game and now Denver losing against a low team, it's very hard to see who's going to win just by looking at the records.

So most of the times, it's really hard as well to put a pre-game bet, as you really don't know who's going to play or what is the feel of the current team specially the favorites. It's so unpredictable that we have like 3 OT games if I'm not mistaken last night.

Yeah for NBA bettors it's not easy at the moment.
Plenty of big surprises here and there. NBA has really become very unpredictable. I wonder why that is. We see big upsets more frequently, but also more big comebacks than normally.
How often this season have we seen a team being down 20+ at halftime and then rally to win, or big 15+ point comebacks in the final quarter.
In the past that wasn't so common but now with the 3 point shot being the go to spot for everybody big comebacks are easier to accomplish when you go on a hot streak from downtown.

[yazher]

The Lakers have been far too mediocre this regular season. So they will probably have very little chance of any success in the playoffs, even if they get there. Honestly, I'm not sure they need Mitchell because he's unlikely to make much of an impact on the Lakers' results. And trading players like Russell, Reaves, and Rui doesn't sound like a good idea for the Lakers.

Everything was not right after they traded almost everyone who helped them win the Championship Bubble in 2020. It went downhill after that because they could not seem to figure out what or how to improve their team and win some more games in order to secure a playoff spot despite having the 2 current best players in the league. LBJ cannot really do anything if he doesn't have any help from his team mates. They were cursed and could not go any further to improve because they let go of those key players that were crucial to their winning the championship, especially Dwight Howard.

[Viscore]

They were cursed and could not go any further to improve because they let go of those key players that were crucial to their winning the championship, especially Dwight Howard.

Howard was really a huge factor for the team, his contribution on defense is a big thing. He could frustrate the one he is defending especially Jokic who is the most dominant big man now. The other players I missed are KCP, Schroder, and Caruso, they really played well during their stint with LA Lakers.

They have to work out with what they have now, I think as long as they aren't still out, they still have a chance to be in the playoffs, whether through automatic qualification based on ranking or through play-in tournament.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

For sure the Phoenix Suns will not trade Kevin Durant and for sure it would be really weird if he gets traded to a newer team you are right it doesn't make sense at all, it will become another building for that team to have Kevin Durant for sure they will need to establish their position on the team and remade their gameplay, that will be a risk to put such effort but for sure if that would be Detroit Pistons maybe and hope for the best that Kevin Durant will get used too in the team as early as he was traded,

He should stop thinking of getting traded again as that would not help his legacy. It's very obvious that he is not as great as Lebron who can easily bring his team to the championship during his prime. Durant is a good scorer though, but as we can see, Booker's performance have decline, and probably that's the reason why they are losing on their recent games.

It's still early, they can still figure out to win. And no excuses for them as they are fully healthy, so they have to play like they used to.

I think what's missing here is the likes of Ayton which Nurkic where not able to provide.

It's really hard to think that they've traded Ayton though, we know that their previous coach might not have like him, or maybe the feeling is mutual. But if they developed Ayton to become a good player they could have been a different team right now.

Nevertheless, I think Ayton really wanted to get traded as well, as the coach or even the owner himself are not sold to him. They didn't offer him a max contract when his contract ended with the Suns, just offered him just enough for his talent as per report. But we all know that he was a crucial pieces during their championship run against the Bucks and only they believed in him and not traded and still playing with the likes of Durant, if could have been different.

[Jating]

How about the Boston Celtics coming from behind against the Minnesota Timberwolves? They played perfectly in the 4th quarter and had the lead but Twolves Antman tied the game so the game went to overtime. But there they showed how strong they are and Tatum ended up with 45 points while Brown had 35 points. Damn, these two offensive monsters.

That's why I says that Tatum and Brown are the top duo in the NBA right now as they can both explode at the same time. It was a great game, ANT really did everything with that clutch FT and play defense on the other side against Tatum.

And I thought that they have a good chance to win when KAT pulled that 3 to make a good separation. But the Celtics come back and then KAT tried to hit another one but fortunately for the Celtics, he missed and then Tatum connect on the other end and that shift the momentum on their side for a hard fought win.

[boyptc]

I've just seen that Coach Erik Spoelstar signed for the contract extension with an 8 years contract with a whopping $120M or $15M per year.

That's already good enough but I think that he deserves more. It's always that every season Heat is that good with his handling and management.

I just wish that he wins the COTY award soon.

[Maslate]

I've just seen that Coach Erik Spoelstar signed for the contract extension with an 8 years contract with a whopping $120M or $15M per year.

That's already good enough but I think that he deserves more. It's always that every season Heat is that good with his handling and management.

I just wish that he wins the COTY award soon.

This is the most interesting part.

"Got divorced before getting the bag": Heat fans point out Erik Spoelstra's divorce timeline after $120 million extension

Good timing and I think it was carefully plan by the Miami Heat. Well, he deserve this contract extension as he is an extraordinary coach, can transform an ordinary player to a star player, and can make an ordinary team to a championship team.

This is what we called "HEAT CULTURE".

[Yogee]

The battle of the rookie of the year contenders between JJJ and Chet was an interesting one. Both played decent and I want to see more of their match up. It would have been a great highlight if JJJ managed to finish that two-handed dunk over Chet.

I've just seen that Coach Erik Spoelstar signed for the contract extension with an 8 years contract with a whopping $120M or $15M per year.

That's already good enough but I think that he deserves more. It's always that every season Heat is that good with his handling and management.

This is the most interesting part.

"Got divorced before getting the bag": Heat fans point out Erik Spoelstra's divorce timeline after $120 million extension

Good timing and I think it was carefully plan by the Miami Heat.

Divorce is destroying a lot of men's wealth in the US so Pat Riley looking out for his coach best interest there hehe. I also think the timing of the contract extension was planned.

[OgNasty]

There’s a couple of great games tonight and they’re being televised on TNT. I’ll be watching.

First, the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. This in my opinion is likely to be the Eastern Conference Finals matchup.

Closing out the night is the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers. Maybe not a playoff preview, but anytime LeBron and Durant face off is worth watching.