2026 NBA Season

[Webetcoins]

LeBron has been playing well lately. Much better than he was at the beginning of the season.
As for Luka's performance in this game, he didn't do too badly. He almost had a triple-double, but as you pointed out, his field goal percentage was poor. Either way, all players have bad days, even the top ones.

Doesn't matter "how" Lebron played in stats, the team is still losing. Yes both Doncic and Lebron had almost triple doubles, and yet the team sucked, everyone else in the team sucked. That is because Lebron and Doncic dominate the ball so much that everyone else is cold and barely gets a shot off, and because the time between their shooting is so distant, they are always cold and have low field goal average.

This is why Lakers is losing, Lakers was higher up, now dropped to 5th on west, and I am afraid they may drop even more.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Clippers showed they're in top form. After six home wins, they've now started a winning streak on the road. Their victory against strong Detroit tonight was the biggest proof of this. Harden and Kawhi are leading the team well.
Their next game is against Charlotte in Los Angeles.
With these wins, they've climbed to 11th place in the West. They're one win behind Memphis, and with this performance, they'll climb even higher.

Really wonder how they do it with such an old team. Beating losing teams is one thing but beating the best record team in the east away obviously is a different story.
Didn't imagine the Clippers would be that competitive this season, obviously having a healthy and in form Kawhi helps a lot with that. If you look at their recent results it's actually crazy what they did recently. They started the season 6 :21 and now they are standing at 15 :23 , basically reverse OKC right now.

That's the only reason why I see the Clippers winning, it's that Kawhi form is on point. And he looks like a version of himself when he brought the Raptors their championship ring. The way he shoots and moves, and penetrates and get that foul, similar to a prime Kawhi Leonard.

But they still have to make up in order to be at least play off bound or going into play in. Still very long season though, we are not even at the half way mark. But this is a good sign that after the drama on Kawhi and the owner, it seems that they have move on and patch up things and that's why Kawhi is playing high level and putting up MVP numbers every night since their run.

[LogitechMouse]

I didn't understand what the Hawks are trying to do. They might want to trade Trae Young and rebuild, but they could've gotten much better pieces in return. McCollum is a good player, but he's already 35. Kispert is just an average player. Even if it's not on the level of the Luka trade, this deal felt strange to me.

Trae Young could provide leadership to the Wizards' young players, but I don't think they'll become strong enough to achieve real success. On the other hand, the Hawks will continue to go down to the bottom of the league.

McCollum's contract is expiring, Porzingis' contract is also expiring, and Kennard's contract is also expiring as well. All of them expire after this regular season. That will open up to around $70M in cap space, and that's enough for them to sign an all-star player and at the same time, some reliable role players. They didn't prioritize the return when they traded Trae, but they prioritize to rebuild around Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels, and opening up huge cap space is the way for it to happen. I hope that summarizes why, and that's only what I know.

As for Trae and the Wizards, I saw a post that Young might not play in majority of the games or even in all of the games this regular season. I don't know if this is true, but if he plays, I don't think that the Wizards will become better this season. Middleton's contract is also expiring after this regular season so for the Wizards' front office, letting Young healthy for next season would be better because they can just sign a good player alongside him next season.

[Velvet78]

Hornets obliterated Jazz in the morning.    I mean Jazz had many missing players at the same time but still a win by 55 points came as a surprise to me.

Hornets are really an interesting team recently. One time they destroy Thunder and shock everyone and the other day they lose to the worst team in the conference.

But would they make it to playoffs? I don't think so...

[arwin100]

I didn't understand what the Hawks are trying to do. They might want to trade Trae Young and rebuild, but they could've gotten much better pieces in return. McCollum is a good player, but he's already 35. Kispert is just an average player. Even if it's not on the level of the Luka trade, this deal felt strange to me.

Trae Young could provide leadership to the Wizards' young players, but I don't think they'll become strong enough to achieve real success. On the other hand, the Hawks will continue to go down to the bottom of the league.

McCollum's contract is expiring, Porzingis' contract is also expiring, and Kennard's contract is also expiring as well. All of them expire after this regular season. That will open up to around $70M in cap space, and that's enough for them to sign an all-star player and at the same time, some reliable role players. They didn't prioritize the return when they traded Trae, but they prioritize to rebuild around Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels, and opening up huge cap space is the way for it to happen. I hope that summarizes why, and that's only what I know.

As for Trae and the Wizards, I saw a post that Young might not play in majority of the games or even in all of the games this regular season. I don't know if this is true, but if he plays, I don't think that the Wizards will become better this season. Middleton's contract is also expiring after this regular season so for the Wizards' front office, letting Young healthy for next season would be better because they can just sign a good player alongside him next season.

Possible opening up to that figure you have mention can really change their team. Since they provably would became better team if they rebuild especially with those young stars they currently have. If they they could get that $70m open they became more flexible and can able to sign players they want that can help their team to win.

Trae in Wizards still questionable he maybe still an all star player but his future is questionable. Now that he's in bad team I don't think this will be good in his career since if he declines more maybe this will put a nail on his career. But if he can perform good and help Wizards to win then suddenly they became more competitive maybe his career goes up together with his value. So let's also see if Wizards did a right choice for acquiring him.

[tech30338]

Trae Young could provide leadership to the Wizards' young players, but I don't think they'll become strong enough to achieve real success. On the other hand, the Hawks will continue to go down to the bottom of the league.

Trae is a worse defender compared to Luka and the big salary cap will give the Hawks a leeway to pick better players than him in the future. Also his team are winning even without him and sadly without him I might i have to bet unders on the Hawks game.

I think that is not the problem, if you can have a scorer you can add a defender that can switch to him, they have made it deep in the playoffs before its just the bucks are too strong and a complete team while the hawks barely give an effort for the team to contend in the east, if you really want your team to make it in the east finals at least show some effort to acquire star players, the hawks are really just praying that they got the best pick after that any negotiation to have a legit star is out of the table.

[Japinat]

I think that is not the problem, if you can have a scorer you can add a defender that can switch to him, they have made it deep in the playoffs before its just the bucks are too strong and a complete team while the hawks barely give an effort for the team to contend in the east, if you really want your team to make it in the east finals at least show some effort to acquire star players, the hawks are really just praying that they got the best pick after that any negotiation to have a legit star is out of the table.

You’re right. Trae already proved he can lead a team, and with the right people around him, any team can improve. The only issue is he’s not getting any younger, and he’s starting to look injury-prone, that’s really the main weakness I see.

Still, if he stays healthy, the team he’s with now should get better for sure.

Just curious though, is there already a schedule for his debut with the new team? I saw a report saying it got delayed.
https://www.si.com/nba/wizards/onsi/washington-wizards-news/trae-young-delayed-washington-wizards-debut-sign-come

[Wapfika]

I think that is not the problem, if you can have a scorer you can add a defender that can switch to him, they have made it deep in the playoffs before its just the bucks are too strong and a complete team while the hawks barely give an effort for the team to contend in the east, if you really want your team to make it in the east finals at least show some effort to acquire star players, the hawks are really just praying that they got the best pick after that any negotiation to have a legit star is out of the table.

What I’m curious if Trae can still perform the way he carries Hawks before during his prime on that team. He recently play less efficient than before but that’s because is not focusing anymore their offense to him.

I’m not familiar on Wizards roster since John Wall era was over but it will be great if Trae will have a new team and can have a fresh start. I’m sure they will prioritize a trade that will help Trae utilize his like what you mentioned by acquiring more defender while offense will be on him.

[dwyane36]

Hornets obliterated Jazz in the morning.    I mean Jazz had many missing players at the same time but still a win by 55 points came as a surprise to me.

Hornets are really an interesting team recently. One time they destroy Thunder and shock everyone and the other day they lose to the worst team in the conference.

But would they make it to playoffs? I don't think so...

Considering that there is still plenty of time left in the regular season and that the Hornets' current position in the standings is not the worst, I think that with enough effort, they still have a chance to reach the play-in tournament at least.
As for the last game, yes, the Hornets' win by such a huge lead is imposing.

[Cointxz]

Hornets obliterated Jazz in the morning.    I mean Jazz had many missing players at the same time but still a win by 55 points came as a surprise to me.

Hornets are really an interesting team recently. One time they destroy Thunder and shock everyone and the other day they lose to the worst team in the conference.

But would they make it to playoffs? I don't think so...

Considering that there is still plenty of time left in the regular season and that the Hornets' current position in the standings is not the worst, I think that with enough effort, they still have a chance to reach the play-in tournament at least.
As for the last game, yes, the Hornets' win by such a huge lead is imposing.

They need to beat Bucks or Bulls in able to be on play-in tournament considering the current standing since I doubt there’s a big changes on the current standing even after the remaining games concluded.

Hornets is a balanced team with a strong bench players. They just lack a veteran star player caliber starter to become a play-off contender.

[Stavri]

LeBron has been playing well lately. Much better than he was at the beginning of the season.
As for Luka's performance in this game, he didn't do too badly. He almost had a triple-double, but as you pointed out, his field goal percentage was poor. Either way, all players have bad days, even the top ones.

Doesn't matter "how" Lebron played in stats, the team is still losing. Yes both Doncic and Lebron had almost triple doubles, and yet the team sucked, everyone else in the team sucked. That is because Lebron and Doncic dominate the ball so much that everyone else is cold and barely gets a shot off, and because the time between their shooting is so distant, they are always cold and have low field goal average.

This is why Lakers is losing, Lakers was higher up, now dropped to 5th on west, and I am afraid they may drop even more.

True. When you look at LeBron's skills, his trophies and all the records he broke, you can easily see he’s a legend. Someone empty couldn't do these things in the NBA, it's obvious. But did the Lakers actually get better when he plays? Definitely not.

[el kaka22]

Haliburton can't be "that" much of a difference maker, this is something else. Don't get me wrong, it is obvious that he is a great player and yes they would have been better with him and it is expected of them to be worse without him. HOWEVER, from finals to worst team in the league? That doesn't really make sense to me, one player can't make that much difference and even if you assumed that the player was the best player in the world, it still shouldn't make this much difference.

This resembles those times when Lebron left a team and that team tanked right away, it's really not looking good at all. I do hope Pacers do better next season, if they do own their own draft picks, they will get Haliburton and a great pick, which should help a lot.

[Fredomago]

I think that is not the problem, if you can have a scorer you can add a defender that can switch to him, they have made it deep in the playoffs before its just the bucks are too strong and a complete team while the hawks barely give an effort for the team to contend in the east, if you really want your team to make it in the east finals at least show some effort to acquire star players, the hawks are really just praying that they got the best pick after that any negotiation to have a legit star is out of the table.

What I’m curious if Trae can still perform the way he carries Hawks before during his prime on that team. He recently play less efficient than before but that’s because is not focusing anymore their offense to him.

I’m not familiar on Wizards roster since John Wall era was over but it will be great if Trae will have a new team and can have a fresh start. I’m sure they will prioritize a trade that will help Trae utilize his like what you mentioned by acquiring more defender while offense will be on him.

Middleton is one the known name that Trae can rely though Middleton still inactive due to injury, not sure if both player will jive and blend their chemistries, and similar to what you said we can't tell if Trae can carry his new team the way he carry the Hawks and almost bring them to the finals way back but Giannis and his Bucks team beat them to advance to the finals then win the title in that same season.

[CLS63]

Haliburton can't be "that" much of a difference maker, this is something else. Don't get me wrong, it is obvious that he is a great player and yes they would have been better with him and it is expected of them to be worse without him. HOWEVER, from finals to worst team in the league? That doesn't really make sense to me, one player can't make that much difference and even if you assumed that the player was the best player in the world, it still shouldn't make this much difference.

This resembles those times when Lebron left a team and that team tanked right away, it's really not looking good at all. I do hope Pacers do better next season, if they do own their own draft picks, they will get Haliburton and a great pick, which should help a lot.

I mean of course probably not the majority of people are expecting Haliburton to carry Pacers to top very quickly. The problem for them is beyond him while of course his absence is affecting them negatively.

They had their golden era last season and went to the end. They competed really hard against a that powerful Thunder in the final series too.

And who knows maybe they were going to win the championship if Haliburton didn't get injured.

[Russlenat]

And who knows maybe they were going to win the championship if Haliburton didn't get injured.

That’s possible, even if they were basically on a Cinderella run most of that series, they were the underdogs a lot of the time. It just felt different when Hali was on the court. The team had that never-say-die attitude, and we all saw those crazy comebacks they pulled off to steal games.

That stretch was probably the best version of the Pacers with that same lineup, so yeah, it’s understandable why people miss it. 

[tech30338]

Haliburton can't be "that" much of a difference maker, this is something else. Don't get me wrong, it is obvious that he is a great player and yes they would have been better with him and it is expected of them to be worse without him. HOWEVER, from finals to worst team in the league? That doesn't really make sense to me, one player can't make that much difference and even if you assumed that the player was the best player in the world, it still shouldn't make this much difference.

This resembles those times when Lebron left a team and that team tanked right away, it's really not looking good at all. I do hope Pacers do better next season, if they do own their own draft picks, they will get Haliburton and a great pick, which should help a lot.

I mean of course probably not the majority of people are expecting Haliburton to carry Pacers to top very quickly. The problem for them is beyond him while of course his absence is affecting them negatively.

They had their golden era last season and went to the end. They competed really hard against a that powerful Thunder in the final series too.

And who knows maybe they were going to win the championship if Haliburton didn't get injured.

They already traded the original players in the team so I'm not sure if after his return it will be the same and also Hali need to adjust, people who came after injury still adjust because they are trying to gauged their body,
but since there are many changes, on the team i think they need more time to adjust and if Hali can carry the team, their last run was a Cinderella story, but still they got what it takes to challenge teams, well all of the teams are capable as long as they have players that can carry them, it just boils down to how much they want it.

[stadus]

They already traded the original players in the team so I'm not sure if after his return it will be the same and also Hali need to adjust, people who came after injury still adjust because they are trying to gauged their body,...

There’s really only one way to find out, and that’s when Hali comes back. Trades happen all the time, sure, but I think Hali is different. This team was struggling before he arrived, then slowly improved year after year, until they eventually made a deep playoff run. And the fact that they weren’t even expected to get that far says a lot about how underrated he is.

I can’t remember the exact odds they had to win it all, but I’m pretty sure they were huge. Even just reaching the conference finals, or winning the conference, already paid big for those who believed this team could reach that level.

The man deserve a rest though after what he contributed to the team, ( let him relax).

[Fredomago]

They already traded the original players in the team so I'm not sure if after his return it will be the same and also Hali need to adjust, people who came after injury still adjust because they are trying to gauged their body,...

There’s really only one way to find out, and that’s when Hali comes back. Trades happen all the time, sure, but I think Hali is different. This team was struggling before he arrived, then slowly improved year after year, until they eventually made a deep playoff run. And the fact that they weren’t even expected to get that far says a lot about how underrated he is.

I can’t remember the exact odds they had to win it all, but I’m pretty sure they were huge. Even just reaching the conference finals, or winning the conference, already paid big for those who believed this team could reach that level.

The man deserve a rest though after what he contributed to the team, ( let him relax).

We will be able to find it out once he comeback and play with his team, though like the post above mentioned that the original core is not longer present, I mean that squad who help him to reached the finals, they are no longer the same faces when he playback, but knowing his capabilities to make his teammates involve that's something that may allow him and his team to start another quest to be back in the competitive states.

[Jostern]

Hornets obliterated Jazz in the morning.    I mean Jazz had many missing players at the same time but still a win by 55 points came as a surprise to me.

Hornets are really an interesting team recently. One time they destroy Thunder and shock everyone and the other day they lose to the worst team in the conference.

But would they make it to playoffs? I don't think so...

Yes that is true they destroyed the Jazz team, I was watching the game and it looked like some what of a training game considering there performance, well I don’t know if I would say it’s because of the injured players in the Jazz team, winning by 55 points it’s a massive difference in score line.

Hornets have been a good team in recents seasons but the problem with this team is that nobody takes them seriously and I’m sure they don’t take themselves seriously which is why people will always doubt them making it to the Playoffs.

But I feel if they’re able to take themselves seriously they can make some difference if they really want to play well and make it to the playoff, the playoffs is always open for everyone, it now depends on their mentality and performance to make it to the playoffs.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Hornets have been a good team in recents seasons but the problem with this team is that nobody takes them seriously and I’m sure they don’t take themselves seriously which is why people will always doubt them making it to the Playoffs.

But I feel if they’re able to take themselves seriously they can make some difference if they really want to play well and make it to the playoff, the playoffs is always open for everyone, it now depends on their mentality and performance to make it to the playoffs.

I don't know which Charlotte Hornets your are following but they haven't had any success in recent seasons. Mostly they have been in the top 3 or top 5 of the worst teams actually. How would you even write something like this when their record speaks for itself??

22-23 : 27 wins 55 losses
23-24 : 21 wins 61 losses
24-25 : 19 wins 63 losses

This season they are also just 14:25, only had some upset wins to their name, that's it. They are still a terrible team which is 5 losses behind the play-in spot right now.