2026 NBA Season

[danherbias07]

Damn! I was forced to watch the 4th quarter garbage time of the LA Clippers versus the Brooklyn Nets game because of this:

Sadly, they didn't reach the mark that I set. Such a waste. And yes, the cashout option has not been available since the 3rd quarter. It's because the score was so low that they won't let it.

Kawhi Leonard is truly back. How I wish Kawhi stayed because he was hot in that third quarter but they need to take care of him as he just came back but he actually looks stronger and faster. Perhaps he misses playing that much which is why he is so energetic at that 3rd quarter even though they are up by 50 points. Good win for the Clippers.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

A ton of interesting trades being talked about recently. I think the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, & Phoenix Suns are all set to possibly make some big splashes in the next month. I’m hearing the Pelicans might dump everyone but Zion, the Suns might dump Beal, the Heat have to trade Jimmy, and Los Angeles is desperate for anything.

As far as I know, the Heat are still far from finalizing a deal to trade Butler to any team. Apparently, other teams' offers aren't satisfying them yet. By the way, there were rumors that the Heat management might change Butler's suspension status to “refusal to provide services”, which means a double fine for him.

Yeah, it seems that Pat Riley is not giving up Jimmy Butler for now, maybe he was really looking for a good deal or just wanted to put Butler in a lose lose situation. In any case, I think Miami could do nothing but to really let go of Jimmy otherwise it will have a effect on the teams.

Knicks and the Sixers did go to OT, but in the end, Sixers has no legs and the Knicks win by 6 points.

Still no Joel Embiid for the Sixers, and it was all Maxey and Paul George for them. And obviously, it's not enough to upset the Knicks.

NO Joel Embiid for the Sixers and not just that. The support Center of the team is also injured.
Its a good win for the Knicks but with 6 points is not enough as i want to result.
Its a healthy Knicks versus a no tower Philly. im expecting more from them.


I am looking for a great match-up tomorrow with the CAVS vs OKC.
But unfortunately the big man of the OKC is also not playing. CHET and Hartenstein are out!

[jaberwock]

As a Warrior fan, I also thought that they will be the dark horse of the West because of how they played at the start of the season. Well, they played well until they're on a losing streak that caused them being at the top 3 to now out of the play-in spot currently.

I don't want to pin-point players, but I guess I need to because his impact with the team ever since he joined is big, and when he played awfully, the team went down with it. Steph's performance is already given, and still giving huge numbers, but Buddy Hield is for me, one of the big reasons why they're out of the playoff contention right now. In his last 10 games, he scored only 8 points, shooting 31% from the field and 25% from 3-pt area. Hield had even been called as "the new Splash Brother", and halfway through the season, he crumbles down. I mean what's going on with him, and his performance.

Overall, I doubt that the Warriors will be a playoff contender right now. Heck even the all-star loaded Suns are now at the 11th spot which is hilarious if you will think.

Looking at Warriors, they are 12th in the conference, and I do not think that they could really go to playoffs, but the gap to play-in tournament is just a game or two, so they could get a few win in a row and they could do much better and could be in play-in position. In fact, so much so that, if they were to go like some 5 game winning streak type of thing, they could literally be in top 6, not saying they will, most likely they won't but at least they are around there.

Lakers looked great too, and in 7th seed, but they lost three in a row as well, this January window is a bit hard for most teams, and that is why most teams are not doing that great, even when one wins, they may lose a few later. The whole league has three teams with more than 2 wins in a row, imagine how bad all teams must be to have that.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

As a Warrior fan, I also thought that they will be the dark horse of the West because of how they played at the start of the season. Well, they played well until they're on a losing streak that caused them being at the top 3 to now out of the play-in spot currently.

I don't want to pin-point players, but I guess I need to because his impact with the team ever since he joined is big, and when he played awfully, the team went down with it. Steph's performance is already given, and still giving huge numbers, but Buddy Hield is for me, one of the big reasons why they're out of the playoff contention right now. In his last 10 games, he scored only 8 points, shooting 31% from the field and 25% from 3-pt area. Hield had even been called as "the new Splash Brother", and halfway through the season, he crumbles down. I mean what's going on with him, and his performance.

Overall, I doubt that the Warriors will be a playoff contender right now. Heck even the all-star loaded Suns are now at the 11th spot which is hilarious if you will think.

Looking at Warriors, they are 12th in the conference, and I do not think that they could really go to playoffs, but the gap to play-in tournament is just a game or two, so they could get a few win in a row and they could do much better and could be in play-in position. In fact, so much so that, if they were to go like some 5 game winning streak type of thing, they could literally be in top 6, not saying they will, most likely they won't but at least they are around there.

And it's almost February so we will have the all star break which means we are half way already. And with that, they are really in a difficult position again, just like last season wherein they will really have to work very hard just to go in the play-in.

Lakers looked great too, and in 7th seed, but they lost three in a row as well, this January window is a bit hard for most teams, and that is why most teams are not doing that great, even when one wins, they may lose a few later. The whole league has three teams with more than 2 wins in a row, imagine how bad all teams must be to have that.

Same case with them, they are not looking healthy. Although there is one case before, it was the Dallas Mavericks last season, wherein they are like in the 10th spot if I'm not mistaken, but then they go and have a winning streak then landed on 6th spot. And they go to the finals unfortunately they've lost.

[Yaunfitda]

A ton of interesting trades being talked about recently. I think the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, & Phoenix Suns are all set to possibly make some big splashes in the next month. I’m hearing the Pelicans might dump everyone but Zion, the Suns might dump Beal, the Heat have to trade Jimmy, and Los Angeles is desperate for anything.

As far as I know, the Heat are still far from finalizing a deal to trade Butler to any team. Apparently, other teams' offers aren't satisfying them yet. By the way, there were rumors that the Heat management might change Butler's suspension status to “refusal to provide services”, which means a double fine for him.

Yeah, it seems that Pat Riley is not giving up Jimmy Butler for now, maybe he was really looking for a good deal or just wanted to put Butler in a lose lose situation. In any case, I think Miami could do nothing but to really let go of Jimmy otherwise it will have a effect on the teams.

Knicks and the Sixers did go to OT, but in the end, Sixers has no legs and the Knicks win by 6 points.

Still no Joel Embiid for the Sixers, and it was all Maxey and Paul George for them. And obviously, it's not enough to upset the Knicks.

I am looking for a great match-up tomorrow with the CAVS vs OKC.
But unfortunately the big man of the OKC is also not playing. CHET and Hartenstein are out!

Thanks for this info, I think when the Cavs defeated OKC Chet also did not play. But I'm expecting that this could be a revenge game for the OKC as it will be held on their homecourt and the Cavs snapped their winning streak. Although the Cavs also ended their own version when the Pacers upset them. But still very interesting game and we hope that it could lead up to the hype again just like the last time wherein there are a lot of lead changes and ties. But in the end it was the Cavs offense against the best defense of OKC that won them their game. Also, Donovan Mitchell had a bad shooting night, but the two big men of the Cavs took over, with Jared Allen and Mobley doing the damage inside because Chet did not play. But I still think this is still going to be a very close game, and it can go either way. OKC though slight favorite in this game.

[Slow death]

Damn! I was forced to watch the 4th quarter garbage time of the LA Clippers versus the Brooklyn Nets game because of this:

Sadly, they didn't reach the mark that I set. Such a waste. And yes, the cashout option has not been available since the 3rd quarter. It's because the score was so low that they won't let it.

Kawhi Leonard is truly back. How I wish Kawhi stayed because he was hot in that third quarter but they need to take care of him as he just came back but he actually looks stronger and faster. Perhaps he misses playing that much which is why he is so energetic at that 3rd quarter even though they are up by 50 points. Good win for the Clippers.

If you had gotten the bet right, you would have made a very high profit, in the last 8 games the Nets have managed to score more than 90 points in each game, strange that in this game they only managed to score 67 points and the Clippers have remained consistent when it comes to scoring above 100 points in most of the last games they have played, I think that for this game, you were just very unlucky, these are the kinds of situations that don't happen every time.

[Fredomago]

NO Joel Embiid for the Sixers and not just that. The support Center of the team is also injured.
Its a good win for the Knicks but with 6 points is not enough as i want to result.
Its a healthy Knicks versus a no tower Philly. im expecting more from them.

Not sure what you mean but it's balance matchup considering both Embiid and KAT are not playing for their respective teams, and by looking on the game stats, Maxey and Brunson both stars of their teams played well, the game went to OT and NYK managed to win the game, with PG and Oubre helping Maxey sixers didn't gave easily.

I am looking for a great match-up tomorrow with the CAVS vs OKC.
But unfortunately the big man of the OKC is also not playing. CHET and Hartenstein are out!

Yeah, this is a great match-up, a revenge for OKC while for Cavs it will be a good step up to make a game edge from the current over-all standing, if Cavs wins again they will move to 35-5 win/loss while if OKC wins it, they'll be able to tie the stats with 34-6 win/loss as they are currently 33-5 leading the west side.

[avp2306]

Its expected to see a decline on that age but still its good that he has a decent stats and still be called as high caliber player.

Lebron is indeed a freak and its extraordinary situation that we don't see a decline on him despite of his age. I guess we can see more for him especially that he's chasing for more records to break.

Both Harden and Butler decline and I guess its better for Butler to follow what Harden do to settle up with his team and stop acting like a crap since if he keep doing these troubles maybe he might struggle to find better team next time.

Also Clippers is doing good let see if they could able to stretch up their standing and possibly compete on finals with current roster they have.

One thing James Harden has going for him as he ages is that he’s more of a shooter than an athletic guard. So he might be able to hang around and provide value longer than someone like Westbrook who has his game based on explosive speed. Maybe Harden will have a hard time getting off step backs as he ages, but for now he still looks decent.

Somehow that is great adjustment to stay long on NBA since if he push his self to became more athletic guard then get some drive in the basket highlight plays maybe he might get a serious injury with that and sit for long time.

Its great that he decide to do that and be more careful the way how he play nowadays since we can still see that Harden is consistent player on the court and reliable guard for his team.

His play style is really different now since he became a facilitator and he adjust on his role in Clippers his role in Houston is different since there he is a super scorer.

[Jating]

And then this posterized dunk of Jalen Green,



We also says that he is inconsistent, but in the last 5 games, he is unstoppable,

34 PTS - 1 REB - 5 AST - 62% FG
42 PTS - 3 REB - 4 AST - 72% FG
27 PTS - 2 REB - 3 AST - 52% FG
29 PTS - 8 REB - 2 AST - 45% FG
33 PTS - 6 REB - 4 AST - 50% FG

And obviously he is the main reason and to everyone's surprises, why they are in the second spot on the Western conference, with a 5 game winning streak.

[bitgolden]

There are still a lot of games left, most teams did not even play half of the games yet, so we have a lot of games left, deciding how a team is doing couldn't be right at the moment, we need to wait and see how they will finish the season. This applies to Warriors but it also applies to every other team as well. We need to wait and see how teams will shape and there are still trades possible, so we can't really know what's going to happen with what we have at the moment, we need to wait and see.

One thing I have in mind though, is that these players are getting injured too much, so instead of making the league start that late, they should reconsider starting early September, even late august, that way they could have 2+ months vacation, while also having 82 games played very spread, and could benefit them a lot. Plus it would be financially better too, and everyone would feel more rested and the league would gain a lot more attention yet again.

[LogitechMouse]

A ton of interesting trades being talked about recently. I think the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, & Phoenix Suns are all set to possibly make some big splashes in the next month. I’m hearing the Pelicans might dump everyone but Zion, the Suns might dump Beal, the Heat have to trade Jimmy, and Los Angeles is desperate for anything.

Everyone but Zion? Are the Pelicans' management crazy? I mean don't get me wrong, but ever since he's been a Pelican, dude didn't help the team at all. Yes, he has the potential, but he can't even make himself healthy for the whole season. I'd rather keep Murray and/or Ingram if you will ask me.

As for the Suns dumping Beal, they're just waiting for him to waive the no-trade clause, and to do that, they put him into the bench which is a bit experimental for them, but let's see how this will work with the team. I don't know who's interested in Beal though especially that ridiculous contract. The Heat will try and shop Butler, but the question is which team wants him? The Warriors don't want him anymore, and the Rockets aren't interested as well. If I'm Butler, I'd go with a team that has a huge cap space so that they can sign him to a max contract.

As for the Lakers, whenever there's trade rumors, the Lakers are still on the list so... no surprise that they want everything, but the question is, do they have the assets to get what they want?

[OgNasty]

A ton of interesting trades being talked about recently. I think the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, & Phoenix Suns are all set to possibly make some big splashes in the next month. I’m hearing the Pelicans might dump everyone but Zion, the Suns might dump Beal, the Heat have to trade Jimmy, and Los Angeles is desperate for anything.

Everyone but Zion? Are the Pelicans' management crazy? I mean don't get me wrong, but ever since he's been a Pelican, dude didn't help the team at all. Yes, he has the potential, but he can't even make himself healthy for the whole season. I'd rather keep Murray and/or Ingram if you will ask me.

As for the Suns dumping Beal, they're just waiting for him to waive the no-trade clause, and to do that, they put him into the bench which is a bit experimental for them, but let's see how this will work with the team. I don't know who's interested in Beal though especially that ridiculous contract. The Heat will try and shop Butler, but the question is which team wants him? The Warriors don't want him anymore, and the Rockets aren't interested as well. If I'm Butler, I'd go with a team that has a huge cap space so that they can sign him to a max contract.

As for the Lakers, whenever there's trade rumors, the Lakers are still on the list so... no surprise that they want everything, but the question is, do they have the assets to get what they want?

I agree that keeping Zion is crazy.  He's going to have injury problems his entire career because of his size, so I doubt he'll ever even give his team the opportunity to see him in the Finals, even if they somehow managed to get there.  I'd be dumping him for whoever I could get on a long term contract if it were me, and I think Zion was potentially the best basketball player in the league...

The Suns have no choice with Beal except to send him to the Lakers.  He has a no trade clause in his contract and already said LA is where he wants to be.  This could help the Lakers get some assets to trade, but probably not considering they don't even have assets to acquire Beal.  You can be sure with Beal wanting to go to the Lakers and Jimmy wanting to go to the Suns, the Heat/Suns/Lakers are definitely in talks every day.

[The Long Run]

There are still a lot of games left, most teams did not even play half of the games yet, so we have a lot of games left, deciding how a team is doing couldn't be right at the moment, we need to wait and see how they will finish the season. This applies to Warriors but it also applies to every other team as well. We need to wait and see how teams will shape and there are still trades possible, so we can't really know what's going to happen with what we have at the moment, we need to wait and see.

One thing I have in mind though, is that these players are getting injured too much, so instead of making the league start that late, they should reconsider starting early September, even late august, that way they could have 2+ months vacation, while also having 82 games played very spread, and could benefit them a lot. Plus it would be financially better too, and everyone would feel more rested and the league would gain a lot more attention yet again.

The finals currently go until mid-June every year, so "late August" would be way too early. Starting the regular season in very late-Sept or early October could possibly reduce injuries and create more TV revenue with featured games on the extra weekends.

[el kaka22]

Okay wait a minute... 126 TO 67!? That looks like one of the biggest gaps in a game I have seen in a long time, and not only that ,but I do not really remember the last time we had a team that scored only 67 points in a game. I know they are tanking and all, but 67 points?

In this space of NBA, to do something like that, you have to shoot so badly that you would have to miss shots that even I would have missed. Like at that point, you could randomly pick the most athletic 10 players from the fans, and just make them play, they would have as much of a chance to score 67 points as  this team would. I always remember that "white mamba" story and how Scalabrine ended up beating randos, but 67 points? Feels like they were seriously terrible.

[LogitechMouse]

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I agree that keeping Zion is crazy.  He's going to have injury problems his entire career because of his size, so I doubt he'll ever even give his team the opportunity to see him in the Finals, even if they somehow managed to get there.  I'd be dumping him for whoever I could get on a long term contract if it were me, and I think Zion was potentially the best basketball player in the league...

The Suns have no choice with Beal except to send him to the Lakers.  He has a no trade clause in his contract and already said LA is where he wants to be.  This could help the Lakers get some assets to trade, but probably not considering they don't even have assets to acquire Beal.  You can be sure with Beal wanting to go to the Lakers and Jimmy wanting to go to the Suns, the Heat/Suns/Lakers are definitely in talks every day.

You know sometimes, a player only unleashes his true potential once he got traded. I'm not saying that it will happen to Zion, but let's not be surprised if there will be some team out there that are willing to risk it all, get Zion and develop him to be a better player, and when I mean a better player, I mean a healthy diet. Like you, I don't even know why the Pelicans are risking it all and keeping him instead of just trade all of their star players and rebuild the team. I'm thinking that they will tank for this season to get a high pick in the next draft season (which is very stacked if you will ask me), and from there, they will trade all of their assets depending on the pick that they will be getting.

As for the Lakers, do you think that the Lakers are even interested in getting a player that has a contract of around $50M a year? Like what you said, the Lakers doesn't have assets to get Beal and if they will get Beal, that means they will sacrifice a lot of developing players like Hachimura, Reaves, and some role players as well. Beal wants to be a Laker, but the Lakers doesn't want him. As for Butler, I guess it would be better if other teams will just get him as a free agent next season. Less risky for them.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

There are still a lot of games left, most teams did not even play half of the games yet, so we have a lot of games left, deciding how a team is doing couldn't be right at the moment, we need to wait and see how they will finish the season. This applies to Warriors but it also applies to every other team as well. We need to wait and see how teams will shape and there are still trades possible, so we can't really know what's going to happen with what we have at the moment, we need to wait and see.

One thing I have in mind though, is that these players are getting injured too much, so instead of making the league start that late, they should reconsider starting early September, even late august, that way they could have 2+ months vacation, while also having 82 games played very spread, and could benefit them a lot. Plus it would be financially better too, and everyone would feel more rested and the league would gain a lot more attention yet again.

The finals currently go until mid-June every year, so "late August" would be way too early. Starting the regular season in very late-Sept or early October could possibly reduce injuries and create more TV revenue with featured games on the extra weekends.

I do agree, doesn't make sense to change the schedule, they even have pre camp that players got injured, or pre-NBA, that takes Chet out as he had a season ending that time. My point is as much as this players doesn't want to be injured, there are a lot of accidents that can happen to serious cause career or season ending injuries and I do not know if we can avoid it by changing the schedule to give them more rest and time to recover.

That's how the NBA has been, a grueling 82 games before the playoffs and then the finals. There are players who didn't get injured throughout their careers, but there are some that is really very fragile and can't adjust on the NBA style of play.

[dwyane36]

I agree that keeping Zion is crazy.  He's going to have injury problems his entire career because of his size, so I doubt he'll ever even give his team the opportunity to see him in the Finals, even if they somehow managed to get there.  I'd be dumping him for whoever I could get on a long term contract if it were me, and I think Zion was potentially the best basketball player in the league...

Since Zion's current contract will expire only after the 27/28 season, I think Pelicans management will suffer be patient and keep him at least until the last season of his contract. After all, Zion is potentially a very valuable asset for any team, and it's understandable why the Pelicans management doesn't want to trade him yet, even despite his systematic injuries.

[danherbias07]

~snip

If you had gotten the bet right, you would have made a very high profit, in the last 8 games the Nets have managed to score more than 90 points in each game, strange that in this game they only managed to score 67 points and the Clippers have remained consistent when it comes to scoring above 100 points in most of the last games they have played, I think that for this game, you were just very unlucky, these are the kinds of situations that don't happen every time.

That's true. I think it's because the Clippers defended well even though the game was already a blowout in the 3rd quarter. The reason behind this is Kawhi Leonard is still in there playing and trying to gain more minutes to prepare him for their next game. Well, that's what I thought, but he didn't play against Portland. He took one more rest. Maybe in their next game we will see him.

I thought the Detroit Pistons were going to keep their winning streak but the Pacers really did a good job at defeating them.

The hyped game OKC Thunder versus the Cavaliers is not that much fun to watch. I was really hoping for a close game, a Finals-like game against the two top ranks of their conference. But, that's not what happened. SGA is a monster, he started hot with his perimeters and continued doing it until its a blowout. The Cavs only got the lead in the first quarter and never got close again.

[Dave1]

~snip

If you had gotten the bet right, you would have made a very high profit, in the last 8 games the Nets have managed to score more than 90 points in each game, strange that in this game they only managed to score 67 points and the Clippers have remained consistent when it comes to scoring above 100 points in most of the last games they have played, I think that for this game, you were just very unlucky, these are the kinds of situations that don't happen every time.

That's true. I think it's because the Clippers defended well even though the game was already a blowout in the 3rd quarter. The reason behind this is Kawhi Leonard is still in there playing and trying to gain more minutes to prepare him for their next game. Well, that's what I thought, but he didn't play against Portland. He took one more rest. Maybe in their next game we will see him.

I thought the Detroit Pistons were going to keep their winning streak but the Pacers really did a good job at defeating them.

The hyped game OKC Thunder versus the Cavaliers is not that much fun to watch. I was really hoping for a close game, a Finals-like game against the two top ranks of their conference. But, that's not what happened. SGA is a monster, he started hot with his perimeters and continued doing it until its a blowout. The Cavs only got the lead in the first quarter and never got close again.

Yes, I was expecting similar to their first game, wherein it was really close. But then again, this is payback for OKC and it looks like they take this game personally. As they humble the Cavs and win with a huge blowout, 20 point win.

SGA lead the way for the Thunder and they don't want to disappoint their fans, scoring 40 points. I think there's no doubt that his name should be in the discussion for the MVP for this season. And I do not know anyone can get close to him as far as offense is.

[Yaunfitda]

~snip

If you had gotten the bet right, you would have made a very high profit, in the last 8 games the Nets have managed to score more than 90 points in each game, strange that in this game they only managed to score 67 points and the Clippers have remained consistent when it comes to scoring above 100 points in most of the last games they have played, I think that for this game, you were just very unlucky, these are the kinds of situations that don't happen every time.

That's true. I think it's because the Clippers defended well even though the game was already a blowout in the 3rd quarter. The reason behind this is Kawhi Leonard is still in there playing and trying to gain more minutes to prepare him for their next game. Well, that's what I thought, but he didn't play against Portland. He took one more rest. Maybe in their next game we will see him.

I thought the Detroit Pistons were going to keep their winning streak but the Pacers really did a good job at defeating them.

The hyped game OKC Thunder versus the Cavaliers is not that much fun to watch. I was really hoping for a close game, a Finals-like game against the two top ranks of their conference. But, that's not what happened. SGA is a monster, he started hot with his perimeters and continued doing it until its a blowout. The Cavs only got the lead in the first quarter and never got close again.

Pacers defeated the Cavs and they are the one who snapped their winning streak. However, they are still very inconsistent, there were games that they look likes a contender and beating good teams. For the Cavs vs Thunder, OKC rested SGA in the 4th quarter as they have a big lead already going into the last quarter. And the defense of OKC holds Mitchell again, although in their games, even tough Mitchell didn't score that much, they have Allen and Mobley who did the damage. But this time, the 2 big men of the Cavs only combines for 18 points. Also some kind of upsets as the King beat the red hot Houston Rockets.