They tended to put teams away well before the fourth quarter, prompting Head Coach Steve Kerr to rest Curry during the final stretch of play for an unbelievable 17 times during the regular season. We’ll get the first glimpse at their revamped offense tonight.
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The Golden State Warriors have gone from the hunter to the hunted.
LaMarcus Aldridge makes his debut with San Antonio after spending the first nine seasons of his career in Portland.
Defense is half the game and Leonard is one of the best in the league at it. The reigning Defensive Player of the year is an absolute terror, hounding ball-handlers into turnovers and providing timely help defense. The Oklahoma City Thunder player took us way back, dressing as Martin Lawrence from his 1999 role in Blue Streak. Returning to the Jazz fold is the dynamic Alec Burks who was sidelined for most of last season by an injury. Over the course of the 2014-15 campaign, Westbrook showed an improved ability to control the game and create opportunities for his teammates. Oklahoma City was always starving for that quality center, and now they have two, in Adams and Enes Kanter.
These two teams figure to be two of the top teams in a conference that is just loaded with great teams.
Zimmerman: Agreed on the Thunder. “Sorry Mary Fallin and Burns Hargis…Although it was so so Sooo Nice of you to come and we really truly were honored by your visit…ya just gotta learn to dunk”. It won’t be an easy task, however, as the Western Conference is tough year after year.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of tweaking that goes on”, Bonner said.
The starting lineup is still mostly intact, however. The Spurs and Tim Duncan win those games easily by pounding OKC in the paint, and that was a wrap.
There’s reason to be optimistic about at least one of Andre Roberson, Dion Waiters or Cameron Payne filling out their backcourt. To get a chance to play for a title, Jordan had to beat the most physical team I’d ever seen. Is it stupid to bet against Rick Carlisle and Terry Stotts? Probably, but I’m going that direction.
“The acquisition of David Lee brings veteran leadership, which is much needed, but also the addition of Amir Johnson is going to bolster their front court”, said Fox. They lost Cory Joseph and Marco Belinelli via free agency and Tiago Splitter via trade. Being slightly better than people are expecting? The Kings are a little bit below. If he can get his players to buy in, 2015-16 could be a big season for Milwaukee.
The Skinny: The Western Conference continues to be the superior conference from top to bottom. The Lakers and the Celtics are the NBA’s two most successful teams, and the Lakers and the Knicks are the NBA’s two most lucrative franchise-brands. 50-50, better or worse? The pressure is on the Thunder organization to win, because Durant could walk with no compensation. Expect alley-oops, alley-oops and more alley-oops from Rubio to the high-flyers this season.
“Considering their roster [Kobe] is still their best option of success, on a night-to-night basis as long as he can remain healthy”.
I’m anxious about the Pelicans. Unfortunately, they missed the playoffs by virtue of a tie-breaker as a season of Westbrook and Durant in their primes was wasted.
In Sacramento, whether Rondo is even a viable National Basketball Association player anymore is up for debate. The good thing is that general manager Neil Olshey acquired a slew of younger players for the rebuild. It’s going to take a few magic from George Karl to make everything work. Nothing could stop him from dropping triple-doubles, not a double-team (which he saw frequently with Durant out) and certainly not a broken face, which did nothing except make him angrier.
“It’s obviously against a great team”, he said.
Gibberman: What constitutes a Kobe resurgence? Is that a resurgence?
The more Bryant plays, the worse the Lakers will be. But there is concern about how that will affect teams and players in the coming year. “You saw a lot of teams willing to lock up guys last summer to avoid all that”.
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Best-case scenario: Towns is even better than he’s billed, Wiggins leaps forward and Rubio finally fills into his potential, and enough of the parts break right behind them to have Minnesota punching up as a shock outside contender for the play-offs. The more free agents you have, the more anxious you are that you will have guys looking out for themselves before the team. Who would you go with?
