Breaking -- The human race has waived Josh Smith: 2014-15 regular season thread part 2

tru

that okc roster would be absolutely insane

i agree with jordan on the thunder issue. the thunder have 3 quality bigs in ibaka, adams, and collison (who's having a down season but will probably rebound, he was 2nd in RPM among PFs last year). if they added a true center like lopez, that would almost certainly require durant to play the 3 in crunch time playoff minutes (assuming ibaka is on the floor for those minutes). when they'd actually rather have durant at the 4 with one of the 3 bigs at the 5, with westbrook and jackson and [insert wing like wilson chandler here].

plus lagoon's talk of lopez as an elite player strikes me as specious. for one thing the guy can't stay on the floor, secondly his defensive value afaict is based entirely on sportVU or synergy nerd analysis or whatever, i don't trust that at all. his DRPM this year and last year are pretty average, and even that probably overestimates his value since he gets credit for being tall (really).

long story short the thunder need someone to take minutes at the wing, not a 4th big

its not just sportvu other stats too

i mean being all actually they need wing help while looking a gift lopez in the mouth is an overly academic approach, if they cld get a deal on lopez take it, he will help them more than for instance than some glorified rando like wilson chandler

with phoenix picking it up it will be tougher for OKC to make the finals but i think they'll get in the playoffs and from there they have as good a chance of anyone as coming out of the west IMO

― J0rdan S., Friday, January 16, 2015 1:50 PM (38 minutes ago)

phoenix is irrelevant because both teams can't make the playoffs

that i think was his point

(who's having a down season but will probably rebound, he was 2nd in RPM among PFs last year)

i see what u did there.

well how can you say the thunder will make the playoffs but also say the suns playing well decreases their chances of making a finals run?

(i'm assuming it's very unlikely the suns overtake the spurs or anyone else above them rn)

he meant the suns decreases their chance of making a finals run via decreasing their chance of making the playoffs

tho i wld argue if they cant catch the suns who they are 3.5 games behind they prob didnt have a v good chance of winning it anyway

are we still holding to the "there's no way OKC misses the playoffs" idea? bc while there's still about half the season left they need to win between 30 and 34 of their next 44. starting to think that's a high expectation

they're obv not gonna win all 44 (which'd be 62 total as of right now), 34 wins would put them at 52 and that's fine, 30 would put them at 48 and in this conference 48 legit might not be enough

got to figure any further westb or durant injury and theyre toast

def. but if they're healthy they will start steamrolling pretty soon

one wld think

well, after tonight's game (which i predict they will lose, albeit closely) they have an east roadtrip coming where they're capable on paper of all of their opposition, only exceptions to that prob being hawks, grizz and maaaaaybe pelicans so theyll most likely climb above 500 after their next dozen or so

also everyone is assuming perfect health for the rest of the west teams which likely will not be the case

true

thunder have less margin for error tho

after that east stretch (ending in early feb) they have no predictably easy or hard stretches, it more or less goes back and forth but the lowest amount they can win and be playoff guaranteed is 32 of their remaining 44...idk man

they can def do it but they shd start now

but if they dont make it i wld like to remind everyone that i predicted it when westbrook went down, otherwise nevermind

i could definitely see them not making the playoffs now that phoenix has straightened itself out, but i still think they'll get there and if they do i like them as much as any west team to make it out

no one wants to talk about this but what if the spurs miss the playoffs

its possible, but far less likely than OKC missing them

def playing w fire over there, everyone assuming they will go on their 2nd half run, need to get kawhi healthy and rolling

if kawhi is like out for the whole year, and one of the olds gets injured or just starts to for real show age, AND tony gets injured again meaning theyre realing on the less perfect parts of their bench as much as the good ones...they could miss it. but thats a lot of things that have to happen

also hollinger's playoff odds have new orleans with a 53% shot lol

phoenix at 56% and okc at 19%

actually interesting, like obvs theyre underestimating okc cause they dont know about injuries but favoring nola over the suns is um id like to know why, schedule stuff id guess

yeah must be schedule

o would you look at that kawhi in line to play today

hollinger's odds have spurs, suns and mavs as extremely safe but i think any of those three teams are at risk of missing the playoffs by a game or something if things don't break right

the spurs are as certain in life as death and taxes that's just how it is, and they're not boring anymore so who can be mad at that

i DON'T however think they make it past the WC finals and might even get knocked out before that

Kurt Helin ‏@basketballtalk 22s23 seconds ago
Milwaukee Bucks’ Larry Sanders suspended at least 10 games for drug violation http://dlvr.it/87M95P

weed is like literally legal what is this garbage

bunch of bullshit

damn id be down if i was sanders too. nba always interrogating his blood stream

Too many games 2nite

Thunder-warriors, Hawks-Raptors, Spurs-Blazers what to do

Btw I'm ready to get on the Steph curry MVP bandwagon and I think OKC has a real shot to miss the playoffs

he is the best non-brow player in the league imo, and since that antediluvian-as-fuck argument that MVPs have to be on playoff contenders sadly holds true among voters it could well be him

dubs/thunder t-minus 1 hour

this is a great slate tonight

for sure

btw larry sanders clearly has serious mental health issues, he's not willie nelson

um he is willie nelson

omg have you guys ever heard nikola vucevic talk, it's unbelievable

he sounds like a nick kroll character