Jason Sitoke

They’ve been relatively healthy lately, and I think everyone acknowledges they’re two of the best players in the league. But striking out in free agency when a lot of the west got better and alll you did was get older … doesn’t inspire confidence. Olympics are a different animal too. I remember Carmelo Anthony being the best player on the court in the Olympics .. only for him to come back and play like like the 20th best player when the nuggets jersey went on.

Not sure why they felt so compelled to take care of Lebron. I understand not wanting to lose him for nothing, but he also has a no trade clause...so you can't just flip him for value necessarily either. I don't think letting him walk would've been a death sentence. I don't see the Lakers competing for a top 5 spot in the West this season, so why not just cut the cord and trade AD for a slew of draft picks and start over? Unlike most of the league, Lakers are always a FA destination, so they could have a couple of decent drafts and then be a contender again. Just don't see this roster going anywhere but down.

Nuggets are having a pretty $hit offseason so far. Best player in the league is on their roster and they’re content to watch the team around him get worse each year. As it stands now they are the 3rd best team in their own division on paper

We'll see how Klay does in Dallas. He was one of my favorite players pre-injury. He looks pretty washed to me honestly (43% FG, below average defender, and can't finish at the rim anymore), but if he has a limited role with the Mavs...maybe it'll play to his strengths.

I don’t think the Lakers are that close. We’ll see what JJ does though

Lakers also got 147 of a possible 164 regular season games out of LBJ and Davis combined. Most pundits thought the Lakers were a contender IF they stayed healthy. They stayed healthy and still ended up in the play in. I'll take the under on 71 games for Lebron this coming year. With teams like OKC, Minny, Dallas, Denver not going anywhere, and Rockets, Grizzlies on the rise...I see Lakers competing with the Clippers, Suns, and Pelicans for the lower end of the playoffs/play in.

Really not sure what’s gonna improve there. They can keep playing musical chairs around the margins all they want. Lebron is another year older and Davis is going to remain injury prone. If they really want to win another title before 2035, they should try to sign and trade Lebron if they can and then deal Davis while he still has value. Otherwise just sliding further and further while they’re valuable assets depreciate

I think the Bucks are done. Dame is no longer a difference maker. Philly is the only real team that could stand in their way. East is such a travesty of a conference. Well what okc see does with their picks and cap space. They’re one or 2 bigs away from being a juggernaut. Minny will be tough. If Denver loses kcp and doesn’t replace him with a 3&D wing…they’ll come back up the pack

Matchups were clearly more important than seeding this year in the west. TWolves beat the defending champs by essentially having more big bodies than Jokic could deal with. Then the Mavs made the wolves look like children by having a superior backcourt that hunted bigs on high switches. Wouldve been interesting to see a Celtics Nuggets matchup, but didn’t happen. For the record, I think the mavs would’ve beaten the nuggets if they would’ve gotten by the wolves.

I would say it’s my honest opinion as a fan that has no predisposed hate for Luka or the Mavs. I just think it’s funny that Kidd waits until an ultimately meaningless game 4 blow out to lump all fair criticism of Doncic as hater talk. Didn’t hear much after game three, but if it feels good to dunk on people because you narrowly avoided a sweep, good for you. Condolences btw.

Good to see some very fair criticism chalked up to being ‘haters’. Nothing like being accountable.

Damn @admo both your teams are in the finals down 3-0?

Eh, no. That's some homerism right there. It's the playoffs. Luka saying 'they're not letting us be physical' is a really bad look when he b!^@hes literally every time someone is near him or touches him. Hobbled or not, he's a complete disaster defensively right now. Trying to draw a 50/50 charge in a close must win game with 4 minutes to go and 5 fouls is absolute lunacy and he's rightly getting killed for it. I like Luka overall. Guy is an absolute killer offensively. But I gotta say he makes me turn on him with this garbage. I had hoped he would've grown out of it by now.

Luka aside, there has been some serious defense in these playoffs. Borderline prison ball in the TWolves games alone.

Dallas has been alarmingly uncompetitive so far. We’ll see if Kyrie can shake loose at home. Otherwise. It’ll be a short series.