Pre-season yay! Let the 08-09 season creep into play.
Whose looking good this year?

i'm pumped. already got my fantasy league rolling as well.
rockets are looking pretty good. also interested in seeing how the clippers and heat do.
and of course the lakers, now that bynum is back.

bynum got his stats but i think he personally could have done better. he looked a little scared out there. hope him and gasol start playing better together.

THUNDER.

i do love kevin durant.

oh and i'm also interested in seeing how 76ers will do with Brand now. and the Raptors if O'Neal is healthy.

I've been waiting for this shit since last spring!

The Lakers will do pretty goddamn well (though I still think Bynum's a big soft pussy due to how long he took to heal, and I only hope the worst for these cocksuckers and their downright creepy coach).
Bryan, you know I got your back dude, but the Thunder will do pretty poorly (though Durant is the fuckin truth).
The Nuggets and Warriors will shit the bed, and the Trail Blazers will swoop the number 8 in the West (I think Oden will bang everybody's families).

And of course, my piece of severe delusion involves the Suns finishing in the top 5 in the West. We're old as fuck, Shaq's collapsing, Barbosa's mom is dying, and our coaching staff got an entire facelift, but I still have faith. It's a longshot, but goddamn do I love the Suns. Steve Nash deserves a ring on his old-ass hand.

That's the end of my rant for now, but I'm already stoked about this thread.

John, I'm a Cubs fan, a Kansas City Chiefs fan, and an Oklahoma Sooners fan - I understand the pain of losing very well. I also am fully aware that the Thunder have preemptively been selected by Mark Stein as the worst team in the league. Feels good to have a team though. Very good.

A large chunk of the coaches and administrative staff of the Thunder are staying at the hotel where I work and I love talking to them every day about the team. The day Stein released his pre-season rankings I mentioned it to one of the more gregarious staff members and he replied, "Steiner? Fuck that guy. I used to work with him. He's a fag and I'm going to call him here in a bit and make fun of him."

A bit of random semi-related stuff but anyway I'm excited about the season regardless of the outcome.

My teams I wanna watch this year is Portland and New Orleans. They made all the right choices in the off season.
But of course I will stand by my team as they march there ways over and over to the playoffs and choke. Go Jazz!



yep..

It's all about the Jazz this year if Boozer can actually play and entire season instead of calling it a year in January like last season. D-Will is gonna destroy everyone and Okur is gonna drop some Memotonic bombs all over the place

Boozer has failed to impress me in any way last year, regular season he did good, not great. All star game, play offs, olympics, he just looked bad.
It's all about D.Will, Brewer, Millsap, and Okur. And Koufos looked decent in the 10 seconds of play last night before he pulled a hamstring. He did score a nice outside shot.
Boozer we should of made some kinda trade with heat. Steal a first round or something.

whack. painfully true.

OK, with all hope lost for the Saints, the Hornets better do the damn thing.

chris paul is nice with it.

Yeah he is. If they build on what they did last year, I think they're actually a legit contender, mostly cause of CP3.

if they got any other star calibre player they'd be an instant title contender.

Yeah, but they make up for it with an unusual number of good role players.

they're an excellent team, i just think they could be one of the most dominating teams in the league if they could find another key player.

James Posey will do good for them.

This year I think is going to be exciting. So many good teams in each division now. A great rookie class coming in. Can't wait until the season starts

Intense close games so far on tip off game day. Looks like Celtics will cap this off in the last 4 seconds. Hella.
I'm not sure who I want to win between Lakers and Portland. Lakers cause Portland is in Utahs division. And Portland cause I really really hate the Lakers.

EDIT: After watching about a minute of the Lakers game.. I realized I hate Lakers way to much to want them to win. Go Portland.

wow this houston/dallas game is intense.

lakers look so good so far. gelling together and playing great team defense. can't wait till they play the hornets or celtics and see how they do against another championship calibur team.

yah lakers are scaring me. but im positive we can beat them this year 2 of 3. and if the playoffs come down to it. We can knock them out. Only if Boozer plays like he did in the opener and everyone contributes and don't get foul happy.

there are sop many good teams this year its scary. utah has great pg and pf. hornets are loaded. lakers are loaded. we all know the celtics and the rockets got better. its going to be an intense year.

I think Portland with time and a healthy Oden can be a threat too. Just will take time. Clippers and Golden State can be surprises as well. Interesting season I think, it will be great.

IF Oden can stay healthy.

Exactly.

EDIT: Hella in getting lucky. Played Denver without Mello. Now Clippers without a hurt Baron Davis after last nights game.
Except we still will be missing Williams, Harpring, and now possibly Korver. They said the Jazz were so loaded they could handle injuries and have enough talent to play through it.
Not if EVERYONE is injured, shit. ha. Injuries seem to be the BIG thing this season for teams.

Boozer started off really hot last season too, but kinda cooled down after that. so we'll see how that goes. if the rockets are healthy for the post-season, i will be a little worried. and even though they're getting old, spurs will always be a threat. especially with duncan and parker on fire like they are now.

don't forget ginobli with a healthy ankle.

I like our chances if we can smoke Pheonix without Tyson Chandler.

what do you mean?

I know it's too early to tell whether or not Pheonix is still an elite team in the league, but the Hornets played pretty well against them the other night, and we didn't even have Chandler to defend Shaq. I'm saying it's looking like this season could be awesome.

aw yah? Phoenix are always up and down. So you never know which team you beat. Good Phoenix or bad Phoenix heh.

hell yes. 2-0 baby ha.

Of course I'm a die hard Jazz fan, but my other team is the Hawks. They gave Boston a run for the money in the play-offs last year and I'm really curious to see how they perform this year. I just cannot wait for Wednesday when D-Will will be playing his first game. Hopefully. His ankle is still a little swollen so he won't be playing again LA on Monday.

I have no idea when Harpring is suppose to be back. He adds that "get the hell off me!" type of defense and gets teams riled up. heh.

We got a win!

Wow Allen Iverson for Billups and McDyess and another player Cheikh Samb.
Pistons needed a solid shooter. But AI is over the hill. He still scores but how long is he going to last?
Billups and McDyess did a lot for Detroit I believe and will strongly be missed.
But a year from now AI can be released and free up a tun of salary for Detroit.

Denver gains a lot from this. Mello is free to be the overall ball hog and should score and play better.
Plus they got two star players. Lost AI weight.
It sucks cause Denver could improve greatly and maybe put more pressure on my same division Jazz.

why are you typing like that? anyways, you're right about AI freeing up cap room, but this brings star power to Detroit. Iverson hasn't played with passion since he was a Sixer. He has had little to no chance to play for a championship until now. If he can return to form and put up decent numbers, I like what we have in Detroit. Billups was clutch and Antonio was solid, but we have Stuckey and we have some decent big men to fill those roles. I'm excited.

houston and new orleans look like the main competitors against the lakers in the west. really hope the lakers can beat both of them

and i hope anyone including houston and new orleans beat the tar out of the lakers. But mostly the jazz.

I'm going to try to pay attention to basketball this season. I live in LA, so I think I'm supposed to be a Lakers fan. But everyone I know loves the Lakers and it's no fun to agree with everyone I know.

Someone give me a team. Preferably one that will beat the Lakers so I can win a few bets, definitely NOT the Clippers since they look like a bunch of pansies.

Congrats dude, I was watchin that. I ordered League Pass, so I plan on watching at least 2 games a night until spring. That's pretty awesome you had a chance to chat up some of the Thunder brass, and even awesomer that one of them called Stein a fag, haha.

The Iverson trade is pretty crazy. Billups and McDyess better hurry up and get their neck tats so they can fit in with the Nuggets.

San Antonio has always been a big threat, and New Orleans is only getting better. Those are probably the Lakers' biggest challenges...oh and Boston . Although i really think Lakers can beat them now with Bynum, and Odom coming off the bench.

If you really wanna piss people in LA off, be a Boston fan.

it's already pissing me off.

Paul Westhead is one of the coaches staying at my hotel. If you're a Lakers' fan you should definitely know who he is.

i know this might be old news for some of you:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-d...o&type=lgns

but wow, i will be so impressed if Dumars pulls this off.

Sorry the lakers are gonna dominate. You'll just look like a fool out of all ur friends. If u still wanna go against the grain the rockets or hornets would be ur best bet