NBA Thread

[jaysblue]

On 3/15/2025 at 12:59 AM, Masterbather said:

The Raptors have to be the absolute dumbest organization in basketball at the moment. And this is a league that includes the Dallas Mavericks. I thought the Jays had the dumbest front office in Toronto but clearly I was wrong.

Tantalizingly close to securing a high pick in a great draft and they piss it all away with a half-assed tank. We're apparently the only team in the NBA that doesn't know how to tank.

Why the hell are we playing our starters into the fourth quarter of games, building up nice leads just to ensure we win the game with a bunch of G-leaguer journeyman. 

Why didn't we play these half-assed lineups earlier in the year when we faced good teams to build a buffer for this bad  part of the schedule?  Why are we letting division rivals get a better chance at higher draft odds?

This is active self-harm and I don't know how ownership isn't stepping in and smacking them all across the face for this.

Garbage organization. It's a miracle these clowns won a title.

Would love to hear your opinions on the Leafs haha. 

[Laika]

Imagine if the Raptors go on a tear, sneak into the play-in group, and get Ingram back before the playoffs. 

[Abomination]

4 hours ago, Laika said:

Imagine if the Raptors go on a tear, sneak into the play-in group, and get Ingram back before the playoffs. 

IMO they could have easily done so had they wanted to. It seems unlikely at this point though. I think they're a clear playoff team next year.

[Masterbather]

On 3/17/2025 at 5:56 PM, jaysblue said:

Would love to hear your opinions on the Leafs haha. 

Leafs at least have high end talent. They drafted well in the years they were bad at least, it's the rest of the team construction part that they screwed up. They have almost zero offense coming from the blue line and that has completely killed the overall offensive flow of this team and will be their undoing in the playoffs.

[Masterbather]

7 hours ago, Abomination said:

IMO they could have easily done so had they wanted to. It seems unlikely at this point though. I think they're a clear playoff team next year.

Yeah they would have easily made the play in if they felt like it, I'm glad they didn't feel like it because that would have been a giant waste of time.

We really need some draft luck. We need a franchise player, or at least an all-star out of this draft that we can build around.

[jaysblue]

13 hours ago, Abomination said:

IMO they could have easily done so had they wanted to. It seems unlikely at this point though. I think they're a clear playoff team next year.

Raps should be a playoff team next year if fully healthy. Add some defensive-minded players this offseason and they should be good!

[jaysblue]

5 hours ago, Masterbather said:

Yeah they would have easily made the play in if they felt like it, I'm glad they didn't feel like it because that would have been a giant waste of time.

We really need some draft luck. We need a franchise player, or at least an all-star out of this draft that we can build around.

Yeah the more I think about it, Barnes is more of a No. 2 guy than a franchise type of player. 

Barrett is just a volume shooter with no defense. Don't want him leading a team as the No. 1 guy. 

Immanuel Quickley is overpaid for what he offers. 

As much as I love Gradey Dick, think he would be better as a 6th man and 3-pt shooter off the bench. As a starter, his 14PPG and no contributions with boards/assists won't fly. 

[Laika]

Simply trade Demar DeRozan (Barrett) for Kawhi Leonard (insert current comp) again. 

Easy. Run it back. 

[jaysblue]

8 hours ago, Laika said:

Simply trade Demar DeRozan (Barrett) for Kawhi Leonard (insert current comp) again. 

Easy. Run it back. 

Exactly. Pretty much deja vu! Agreed 100%. 

[Masterbather]

On 3/19/2025 at 7:02 AM, jaysblue said:

Yeah the more I think about it, Barnes is more of a No. 2 guy than a franchise type of player. 

Barrett is just a volume shooter with no defense. Don't want him leading a team as the No. 1 guy. 

Immanuel Quickley is overpaid for what he offers. 

As much as I love Gradey Dick, think he would be better as a 6th man and 3-pt shooter off the bench. As a starter, his 14PPG and no contributions with boards/assists won't fly. 

My expectation for Barnes was always a glue guy / jack of all trades type player. Still very valuable but I actually see more as a third option offensively. He really has a limited scoring game. Defense has improved though. 

Barrett could be a reliable secondary scorer but while it's great that he can get to the rim, once he gets there he misses a lot of bunnies and misses a lot of free throws. Kind of defeats the purpose. I see why he was an intriguing player but also why the Knicks gave up on him.

Quickley can score well enough, but he doesn't have that dog in him defensively. I think we need a dog as our point guard. I really like Shead, but I'm not sure he be can be a number one. Quickley's best role was the way New York utilized him. But he costs too much for that role.

Dick I always saw as a three-point specialist/sixth man potential wise. 

We REALLY need a hit in this draft. We're a playoff team as is but nothing more than middle of the pack without more talent.

 

[jaysblue]

Cancelling my Raptors season tickets after over 10+ years. MLSE can go F themselves! 

[Spanky99]

3 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Cancelling my Raptors season tickets after over 10+ years. MLSE can go F themselves! 

Did you just find out about the price hikes now?

Leaf fans are pIsT... lol. All 2,000 of them or whatever.

[jaysblue]

7 hours ago, Spanky99 said:

Did you just find out about the price hikes now?

Leaf fans are pIsT... lol. All 2,000 of them or whatever.

At least Leafs tickets resell haha and most season ticket members recoup their costs even for dog games. 

They've been hiking prices for the Raptors ever since they won the Championship in 2019. I understand modest increases like for 2-3 years after they won, but they should have froze the prices for season tickets. Instead they kept increasing the prices every year even after the Raptors have been awful and in the midst of a rebuild. Like there is no justification to increase ticket prices when the team is performing poorly. 

I likely was going to renew again if the prices stayed the same or if they decreased prices a bit, but when I saw another increase that brought me close to $10K, I was turned off. 

[Masterbather]

On 3/25/2025 at 5:28 PM, jaysblue said:

At least Leafs tickets resell haha and most season ticket members recoup their costs even for dog games. 

They've been hiking prices for the Raptors ever since they won the Championship in 2019. I understand modest increases like for 2-3 years after they won, but they should have froze the prices for season tickets. Instead they kept increasing the prices every year even after the Raptors have been awful and in the midst of a rebuild. Like there is no justification to increase ticket prices when the team is performing poorly. 

I likely was going to renew again if the prices stayed the same or if they decreased prices a bit, but when I saw another increase that brought me close to $10K, I was turned off. 

How much of a price hike was it?

[jaysblue]

Paid $8900 or $9K I believe for this season and for 2025/2026 the invoice was for $9800. So yeah pretty much a 10% hike. Seeing them almost touching $10K was a huge turnoff. 

Prices should have stayed in the $7-8K range. I started out paying $4500 for my seasons back in 2014. 

[Grant77]

Nuggets fire Malone and their GM with 3 games left. That's absolutely insane.

[jaysblue]

On 4/8/2025 at 4:22 PM, Grant77 said:

Nuggets fire Malone and their GM with 3 games left. That's absolutely insane.

Nuggets so close to being a play-in team haha damn. The West outside of OKC are so close to each other in the standings. Literally 1 game separates the Nuggets from 4th place to the 7th place Timberwolves. 

Not sure why the fired Malone though. Has had a lot of success in Denver over the last 4-5 seasons, and coached them to a Championship in 2023. Unless some of the top players went to the FO to complain, not really sure and weird firing right before the Playoffs. 

[Grant77]

18 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Nuggets so close to being a play-in team haha damn. The West outside of OKC are so close to each other in the standings. Literally 1 game separates the Nuggets from 4th place to the 7th place Timberwolves. 

Not sure why the fired Malone though. Has had a lot of success in Denver over the last 4-5 seasons, and coached them to a Championship in 2023. Unless some of the top players went to the FO to complain, not really sure and weird firing right before the Playoffs. 

He's a heck of a coach. If Coach Pop isn't back, I'm hopeful that my Spurs can pick him up.

[Brownie19]

On 3/19/2025 at 7:02 AM, jaysblue said:

Yeah the more I think about it, Barnes is more of a No. 2 guy than a franchise type of player. 

Barrett is just a volume shooter with no defense. Don't want him leading a team as the No. 1 guy. 

Immanuel Quickley is overpaid for what he offers. 

As much as I love Gradey Dick, think he would be better as a 6th man and 3-pt shooter off the bench. As a starter, his 14PPG and no contributions with boards/assists won't fly. 

They need a little luck in the draft lottery and to absolutely nail the pick this year.  If they do, they'll be good next year.

Poeltl

Ingram

Barnes

Barrett

IQ

2025 #1 draft pick

Dick

Walters

Shead

Mogbo

 

If that #1 pick becomes a franchise type player - we're cooking.  That said, I really hope we dumb Barrett this offseason.  Bring me a 3 & D shooting guard.

[jaysblue]

NBA Playoffs R1:

- Cavs over the Heat

- Celtics over the Magic

- Knicks over the Pistons

- Pacers over the Bucks

 

- Thunder over the Grizzlies

- Lakers over the Timberwolves

- Nuggets over the Clippers

- Warriors over the Rockets

 

Would like to see the Pistons beat the Knicks, but don't think it will happen. Warriors/Rockets is a flip of the coin. 

 

 

[Spanky99]

Who cares... 🖕😅

[jaysblue]

On 4/19/2025 at 11:50 AM, Spanky99 said:

Who cares... 🖕😅

NHL Playoffs > NBA Playoffs

Especially the first round. NBA Playoffs only start getting interesting in the Conference Finals and NBA Finals. 1st/2nd rounds can be bores, depending on matchups. 

[Masterbather]

Second round is off to an incredible start. I hate both the Knicks and the Celtics and hope the earth opens up beneath them and swallows them and Madison Square Garden into the Earth's core, but that was an exciting game.

Denver and OKC was just nuts. Pacers winning was also cool.

[jaysblue]

14 hours ago, Masterbather said:

Second round is off to an incredible start. I hate both the Knicks and the Celtics and hope the earth opens up beneath them and swallows them and Madison Square Garden into the Earth's core, but that was an exciting game.

Denver and OKC was just nuts. Pacers winning was also cool.

Games were all fixed. 

[Masterbather]

2 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Games were all fixed. 

Well then they did an excellent and entertaining job of fixing them.

[Masterbather]

New season, thoughts so far: 

Already wasn't a fan of Quickley or that horrible contract, the start to the season is doing nothing to allay my concerns. Shead I like, he should get more minutes. 

BI is BI, no issues there. 

Barnes is off to a good start, his three-point shooting will regress massively, but if he continues to attack the rim and not overly rely on the three he will have a very good year. 

Barrett is playing surprisingly well with BI and Barnes, I still think he's a piece that needs to be upgraded in the long run.

Need Yak to get healthy. 

I never understood some people's hype with Dick and I still don't. A guy drafted to shoot threes and is shooting them at 35% while contributing little else. He's just a guy, he's not a piece. 

CMB, some encouraging moments so far, need to see a lot more.

 

[jaysblue]

5 hours ago, Masterbather said:

I never understood some people's hype with Dick and I still don't. A guy drafted to shoot threes and is shooting them at 35% while contributing little else. He's just a guy, he's not a piece. 

 

[Masterbather]

4 hours ago, jaysblue said:

I knew I should have just called him Gradey.

[Spanky__99]

Is this team for real? Best start since '19, 7 W's on the road, that's impressive. 👀

 

[jaysblue]

On 11/21/2025 at 6:00 AM, Spanky__99 said:

Is this team for real? Best start since '19, 7 W's on the road, that's impressive. 👀

 

Easy schedule so far and everyone has stayed healthy.

If injuries start to hit some of their key guys - Barnes, Ingram, Barrett, Quickley - not sure the Raps have the depth to overcome missing one or multiple of those guys for an extended period. 

They should make the Playoffs in a weak Eastern Conference, though I don't consider them Championship Contenders. Likely a first or second round exit IMO.